Britain should be looking at military options in Syria - minister

Foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday it was right to look at British military involvement in the Syrian conflict, but that any action would need to be part of a coalition involving the United States and was not likely in the short term.

"It is right now that we should be looking again at the more kinetic options, the military options," Johnson told a committee of lawmakers. "But we must be realistic about how these in fact work, and what is deliverable."

"We can't do anything without a coalition, without doing it with the Americans. I think we're still a pretty long day's march from getting there but that doesn't mean that discussions aren't going on, because they certainly are."

He also said intensifying sanctions on key players in the "regime" of President Bashar al-Assad was another option open to Britain.