"Joint work with the Syrian authorities has begun on securing the sites where the team will operate," said the statement, which detailed the activities of the team's first day of work on Wednesday.
"In addition, planning continues for one of the team's immediate tasks, disabling Syria's chemical weapons production facilities, which should begin soon."
Later on Thursday, the U.N. said the experts hope to begin on-site inspections and the initial disabling of arms "within the next week."
The joint mission of the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it "has made encouraging initial progress" adding that documents handed over by Damascus on Wednesday "look promising."
"The team hopes to begin on-site inspections and the initial disabling of equipment within the next week, but this depends on the outcome of the technical groups established with the participation of Syrian experts," they said in a statement.
The two organizations, however, warned that "further analysis, particularly of technical diagrams, will be necessary and some more questions remain to be answered."
U.N. front man Martin Nesirky declined to provide further details to journalists, saying: "The technical experts need to study everything they are given very closely."
"There is clearly a good cooperation with the Syrian authorities at the expert level to try to understand the material provided to the advance team from the U.N. and OPCW," Nesirky added.
The OPCW team of 19 disarmament experts arrived in Damascus on Tuesday.
They are overseeing the implementation of a U.N. resolution which orders Syria's chemical arsenal destroyed.
Resolution 2118 was passed after gas attacks on the outskirts of Damascus killed hundreds of people on August 21, an atrocity that prompted the United States to threaten military strikes on Syria.
The OPCW team faces a daunting task, as
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
's regime is understood to have more than 1,000 tonnes of the nerve agent sarin, mustard gas and other banned chemical weapons.
On Wednesday, the team also considered "the health and environmental hazards which they may have to confront", said the joint statement.
"Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea, one that didn't involve kerosene...
discussions on the size of Syria's stockpiles are also under way, as well as long-term planning, so that deadlines unanimously imposed by the executive council of the OPCW and the U.N. Security Council are met," it added.
Under Resolution 2118, Syria's chemical arsenal should be destroyed by mid-2014.
"In their discussions with the authorities, the OPCW-U.N. team was keen to stress that the onus was on the Syrian government to meet the verification and destruction deadlines," said the statement.