Anti-Syrian majority asks UN to impose Hariri tribunal

Beirut : Parliament's anti-Syrian majority has called on the UN to impose an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri after the government failed to win opposition support for its creation.

The anti-Syrian coalition's call late Tuesday on the world body to take "alternative measures" to approve the tribunal amounted to an invitation to the UN Security Council to independently establish it.

The Hezbollah group is wary of international intervention. Its deputy leader, Shaikh Naim Kassem, warned late Tuesday that a UN- imposed tribunal will be "a court against Leb-anon and not to try the killers of Premier Hariri."

Sa'ad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and son of the slain leader, presented a memorandum to Geir Pederson, the UN representative in Lebanon, demanding UN action to establish the tribunal.

Signed by 70 of parliament's 128 members, the memorandum seeks UN action in line with a draft agreement signed in 2006 between the government and the UN Hariri and his supporters have demanded that the opposition endorse the creation of a "tribunal with an international character" which includes Lebanese and foreign judges.

The memorandum, addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calls on the UN chief "to take all alternative measures under the UN Charter which ensure the establishment of the international tribunal which has been approved by the Security Council in order to achieve justice, strengthen national peace and protect world justice and peace," according to a statement issued by Hariri's office.