The Vatican's official daily has strongly criticized global powers for getting ready for a possible military action against Syria.

The daily stresses that the UN investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus is still ongoing.

"The tones are becoming ever more drastic and the action being taken by the United Nations appears subjected to a sort of crossfire. Various international actors appear no longer to consider the investigation a determining factor... and what commitment there was to a negotiated settlement "appears to be dying out," the Tuesday publication points out.

Last week, the Vatican's permanent observer at the UN in Geneva, Monsignor Silvano Tomasi, voiced doubt the Syrian regime was responsible for the reported use of chemical weapons in Damascus' suburbs.

The Vatican firmly opposes any form of armed intervention, grounding its opinion on the mayhem triggered by the war staged by the USA to topple Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003.