After talks in Moscow, France's Laurent Fabius said the UN's report into the August incident left no doubt that the Syrian government was responsible.
But Russia's Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had "serious grounds" to believe the attack had been a provocation by rebel forces.
Mr Fabius is pressing Russia to support a Security Council resolution on Syria.
"When you look at the amount of sarin gas used, the vectors, the techniques behind such an attack, as well as other aspects, it seems to leave no doubt that the regime [of President Bashar al-Assad] is behind it," Mr Fabius said at a news conference in Moscow, referring to the much-anticipated UN report which was released on Monday.
Mr Lavrov said no decision on military intervention should be made before all the evidence had been considered.
"We want objective professional assessment of the events of 21 of August. We have serious grounds to believe this was a provocation... But the truth needs to be established and this will be a test of the future work of the Security Council."
He added that some of Russia's questions on the origins of the attack remained unanswered by the report, including whether the weapons were produced in a factory or home-made.
He also said any UN resolution calling for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons should not contain the threat of military action.
The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says Russia has delivered a promise from Syria to give up its chemical weapons, and it seems that at this stage Moscow does not feel like giving the Western allies anything more.
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