April 7, 2005 - 4:05 AM

UN to approve probe of Hariri killing

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Security Council is expected to approve a resolution authorizing an inquiry into the killingof former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, council diplomats say.

The 15-nation council could adopt the measure unanimously after its drafters, the United States and France, fine-tuned itslanguage to reassure Beirut that investigators would not impinge on its sovereignty, the diplomats said after closed-door talkson Wednesday.

A U.N. fact-finding mission recommended the independent inquiry after concluding that Lebanon's probe into Hariri'sFebruary 14 assassination in a Beirut bombing suffered from "serious flaws" and could not reach a credible conclusion.

The mission also blamed Syrian military intelligence "for a lack of security, protection and law and order" in Lebanon at thetime of Hariri's death.

Syria is widely blamed by Lebanese opposition politicians for Hariri's death after he accused Damascus of meddling inBeirut's internal politics.

Damascus has exerted virtually unchallenged control over Lebanon for three decades. But it promised U.N. envoy TerjeRoed-Larsen this week that it would withdraw its military and intelligence forces by April 30 in line with an earlier SecurityCouncil resolution adopted in September.

Following the latest rewrite of the resolution approving an outside inquiry into Hariri's death, "there was broad agreementthat it is a fair compromise," said Russian Ambassador Andrei Denisov, who earlier had objected to some provisions.

"It talks about cooperation and working together with the Lebanese authorities," said Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya,saying Beijing, which objected to an earlier draft, would support the resolution.

Five other council members had asked that the inquiry be limited to three months rather than the six months proposed byParis and Washington.

As a compromise, the new draft gave investigators three months to complete their work but said their mandate could berenewed for at most another three months.

The size of the investigative staff would be up to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan but likely would total about 50,diplomats said.