UN steps up probe into Hariri killing

"My mission is to help the Lebanese government define the nature and scope of required international assistance," Nicolas Michel, under secretary general for legal affairs, told reporters.

Michel said his task was in line with UN Security Council resolution 1644 adopted on December 15, and related to "the desire expressed by the Lebanese government to make sure that those responsible for the (Hariri) attack ... are judged by an international tribunal."

The resolution acknowledged Lebanon's request for an international tribunal to try the accused for the Hariri murder last February and for an international probe into more than a dozen bombings that have targeted anti-Syrian critics over the past year.

Michel added that the Security Council had asked for "recommendations regarding the inclusion of other attacks in (the UN probe's) field of work."

With regard to the makeup of a potential international tribunal and whether it would include international as well as Lebanese judges was "precisely the kind of questions we will bring up during consultations."

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Wednesday that Michel's mandate covered "the killing of former prime minister Hariri and others to be tried by a tribunal of an international character."

Michel, due to stay until Saturday, is to meet Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Justice Minister Charles Rizk, as well as the international and Lebanese investigators of the string of murders.

The visit comes shortly after Serge Brammertz, the new chief of the UN probe into the Hariri assassination, officially took up his duties on Monday in the Lebanese capital.

His predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, found "converging evidence" of Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officers' involvement in Hariri's killing in a February 14 bomb blast on the Beirut seafront.

It also cast doubt on Syria's cooperation with investigators.

The government's call for the internationalization of the probe and trial has sparked a political crisis in Beirut, with the pro-Syrian Shiite movements Hezbollah and Amal boycotting the cabinet since December 12.

Amid the growing tensions since the Hariri murder between Lebanon and Syria, the former power-broker in Beirut, Arab countries have been trying to mediate between the two neighbors.

Siniora, on a visit to Cairo on Wednesday, said Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was to conduct a mediation between Syria and Lebanon that will include the issue of weapons in Palestinian camps.

"Palestinian weapons in camps should be brought under control and should not leave these camps," he said after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Back at home, President Emile Lahoud called for Lebanon to restore its traditionally strong ties with Syria and renewed his support for the Palestinian and Lebanese "resistance" to Israel.

He urged the international community "not to ignore the right of return of the Palestinians (refugees in Lebanon) to their territories and that of Lebanon to continue its national resistance", he said, receiving the diplomatic corps.

"Lebanon is strong in its international friendships ... and its brotherly relations with Arab countries, notably its neighbor Syria from whose strength it draws strength and weakened by its weakness," Lahoud said.

The Security Council pressed Syria on Monday to cooperate in helping Lebanon restore its authority fully over its territory and in stopping the flow of arms into its smaller neighbor.

It welcomed the withdrawal of Syrian arms from Lebanon last year in line with resolution 1559 passed in 2004.

But it voiced regret that other provisions, such as the disbanding and disarming of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias and the extension of government control over all Lebanese territory, had yet to be implemented.

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