The UN Security Council, while seeing the "need to try to break the stalemate" over alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, recognizes "the geopolitics of this has shifted to the G20" meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, where world leaders meet for the next few days, the council president said on Wednesday.

"We're in a little bit of a holding pattern until we see where leaders take us in the next couple of days, because they are the key people, the key countries concerned on this," Ambassador Gary Quinlan of Australia, this month's president of the panel of 15, told reporters here at the UN headquarters.

He admitted the issue was not officially on the council's agenda, but said council members have been in informal talks among themselves and with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "on how do we take the question of Syria forward."

Ban left for St. Petersburg Tuesday.

Quinlan also said there were discussions among members earlier Wednesday as a result of a debriefing by Undersecretary-General Jeffrey Feltman following his latest Middle East visit, "but positions haven't varied; there is no change there whatsoever."

"The reality is everybody obviously is quite transfixed by what we do about this and everybody knows that the violation of international law involved through the use of chemical weapons is quite atrocious, unacceptable," said the council president.

"Fellow ambassadors on the council are obviously concerned about the UN investigation (into the alleged use of chemical weapons); how best it can proceed; how quickly that can be done; to preserve also the integrity of the scientific process; questions of when that can be done and whether any consideration of action, of course, should await that," he said.

A UN investigation team has returned from Syria and are now in the process of samples study to determine whether chemical weapons were used on Aug. 21 in the Ghouta section of Damascus, the Syrian capital, where hundreds were reportedly killed.

"All of these are very legitimate questions which obviously are on people's minds," Quinlan said. "In terms of the discussions that have taken place, the stalemate among the key players on the council remains obvious."

"I have not been authorized to do so but the degree to which I can characterize where things are at, I think, the (10) non- permanent members, many of whom are concerned about this, realize that the efforts have to be, need to try, to break the stalemate," he said.

"The reality is that with that stalemate however, there needs to be a re-energized diplomatic effort. The gear has shifted, the focus has shifted, really to the G20 meeting. That's just a reality."

Quinlan pointed out leaders of all the permanent five veto- wielding members of the council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, will be in St. Petersburg for the G20 summit, as well as non-permanent council members Australia and South Korea, which are also G20 members, along with other " significant countries," that have "made very clear that Syria is a major preoccupation that they want to talk about during the G20."

The topic is not on the formal agenda but the council president was convinced it would come up in bilateral or other group meetings.

"The reality is the shift has been to there, to try and see if there is the possibility of getting over this stalemate, getting through this stalemate," he said. "I think most of us have concluded just for the moment it would not be productive or useful to try and have a Security Council discussion of this in some more formalized way because it leads nowhere."

"It's clear that we have to try to address this at a higher level, leaders level, and see if some kind of brokering can take place during the G20 itself," Quinlan said. "I think that's the next phase. Frankly I think people might say. 'Well, what is the Security Council doing, is it abrogating its role?' Well, not yet. But the geopolitics of this has shifted to the G20, there's no doubt about this."