U.N. chemical weapons team to leave Syria by Saturday morning - Ban

U.N. vehicles carrying a team of United Nations chemical weapons experts leave the hotel where they are staying at in Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri

VIENNA (Reuters) - United Nations inspectors, in Syria to determine whether forces have used chemical weapons in the civil war, will continue their investigations until Friday and plan to leave by Saturday morning, the U.N. chief said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Vienna, said the team - which arrived in Syria on August 18 - would report to him as soon as they "come out of" the country and that he had therefore cut short a trip to Austria. He had been due to address an economic forum in the village of Alpbach on Saturday.