U.N. sleuths find new evidence in Hariri killing

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. investigators probing the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri said on Tuesday they had found new information that expanded their list of suspects.

Their report comes as U.N. efforts to bring Hariri's killers to justice gather pace. Last week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that a special tribunal to try the case would be set up in The Hague on March 1.

The report, authored by chief investigator Daniel Bellemare of Canada, also said his Beirut-based team found fresh clues to where the suicide bomber responsible for Hariri's death came from, although it gave no further details.

Hariri and 22 other people died in a car bomb explosion in Beirut on February 14, 2005. Some anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians have said Syria was behind the bombing, a charge Damascus vehemently denies.

The assassination sparked a worldwide outcry that forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops that had been in Lebanon for nearly 30 years. The U.N. probe and tribunal remain sensitive issues in Lebanon, where tension between pro- and anti-Syrian camps runs high.

The report for the Security Council is Bellemare's second since he took charge of the investigative commission this year. His first, in April, said a network of individuals planned and carried out the killing.

The latest report said the commission "has identified new information that may allow the commission to link additional individuals with this network." Other information reinforced the view that members of the network also were linked with other political attacks in Lebanon.

LIKELY MOTIVE

Investigators collected additional soil, sand and water samples from states in the region and used radioactive isotopes to try to determine where the bomber came from.

"The results of these activities help to identify the possible geographic origin of the suicide bomber," Bellemare said, without elaborating.

Investigators have said a likely motive for the killing was the role of Hariri, who became a prominent critic of Syria, in support of a 2004 U.N. resolution demanding that Syrian and other foreign troops withdraw from Lebanon.

The original head of the U.N. investigation, Detlev Mehlis, implicated senior Syrian officials in the case, but his two successors, including Bellemare, have not repeated the charge and no suspects have been publicly identified.

Bellemare, who will also be the chief prosecutor in the case, played down expectations that the start-up of the tribunal in The Hague would mean that indictments naming alleged perpetrators would be issued immediately.

Further investigations would be needed, he said.

Ban said in a report last week that preparations for the tribunal were well under way, including recruitment and training of staff, preparation of premises for the court and the raising of sufficient funds to meet the budget.

Ban said he had selected international and Lebanese judges in the case, but would not announce their names until necessary security measures were in place.

The current mandate of the investigation panel ends on December 31 and Bellemare requested that the Security Council extend it until February 28 to ensure a smooth transition to the tribunal.

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)