Abstract: In an annual monitoring visit of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) fields for diseases occurring on promising chickpea breeding lines in Syria, Sclerotinia stem rot caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum was found in more than 30 percent of the fields in which the trials were planted. The disease incidence ranged from 5 to 100 percent and none of the lines in the trials showed high resistance to the disease. A program was initiated to start screening chickpea lines to Sclerotinia stem rot with known resistance to Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris, to identify lines with combined resistance. A detached shoot technique was used to determine the preliminary reaction of chickpea genotypes to infection by S. sclerotiorum. Results using this technique under controlled conditions in the growth chamber, showed that out of 15 chickpea genotypes evaluated, 5 exhibited some resistance to Sclerotinia stem rot. This was shown by delayed initial infection, restricted lesion development and no sclerotial production. These results were confirmed using potted plants in the plastic house. The technique is simple, less labor-intensive and requires a very short period of time to obtain results that can be confirmed under field seasonal or other conditions.