U.N. sees boost in funding for Hariri tribunal

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations now has enough money in hand or pledged to cover first-year costs of a special tribunal in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, officials said on Thursday.

The rise in funding brings the start-up of the controversial court, authorized by the Security Council last year, a step closer but officials still could not say when it would begin work.

A U.N. investigation is still under way into the assassination of Hariri and 22 others in a Beirut car-bomb explosion on February 14, 2005.

Although Lebanese authorities have been holding eight people in connection with the blast, the U.N. team has so far named no suspects. Some anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians have blamed Syria. Damascus has denied involvement.

U.N. Legal Counsel Nicolas Michel told a news conference that as of Thursday, the United Nations had received $60.3 million -- $34.4 million cash in hand and $25.9 million in pledges -- from donor countries.

That exceeds the projected $50 million start-up and first-year running costs of the tribunal, which will be based near The Hague in the Netherlands.

Michel, who earlier briefed the Security Council on preparations for the tribunal, said a recent spurt in available funding was due to what he called "very substantial" contributions from Middle Eastern countries.

He declined to detail the contributions of individual countries but said the members of a tribunal management committee -- Lebanon, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States -- had each put in more than $1 million.

NO MONEY FROM SYRIA

Major funders are known to be Lebanon and the United States, which announced last month that it was doubling its pledge to $14 million from $7 million.

A source close to the tribunal said Syria had contributed nothing. Syria fears the court could be used by foes abroad to put it under pressure and has said any Syrian suspects would only be tried in Syrian courts.

Michel said that before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could set the tribunal in motion, he would need "sufficiently clear indications" that there was enough funding to cover its second and third years. "There is no reason to doubt that these indications will come in the not too remote future," he said.

The start-up of the tribunal also depends, however, on progress in the investigation. U.N. officials said chief investigator Daniel Bellemare of Canada was expected to hand Security Council members an update on Friday.

The investigating panel's mandate is due to expire on June 15 but could be extended. Judges for the tribunal have already been selected but for security reasons their names will not be made public until they hold their first meeting, Michel said.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said his country welcomed the progress that had been made on the tribunal.

"We think this is very important, that the culture of impunity be brought to an end with regard to political assassinations," he told reporters. "This is important for Lebanon because this issue ... is still a problem in Lebanon."

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told journalists that Moscow would support the tribunal "in every possible way."

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)