U.N. Hariri sleuth queries Syria president

UNITED NATIONS, April 25 (UPI) -- The head of the U.N. panel looking into last year's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The head of the United Nations' International Independent Investigation Commission, Serge Brammertz, also met Tuesday with Vice-President Farouk al-Shara in Damascus, the Syrian capital, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman at U.N. World Headquarters in New York, said. He had no further details about the investigator's operational work.

UNIIIC has already reported finding evidence pointing to both Lebanese and Syrian involvement in the bomb attack that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut Feb. 14, 2005.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council in March, Brammertz said he had been promised a meeting with Assad during the upcoming month. In contrast to earlier problems with Syrian cooperation, he reported progress in this "critical area," with a common understanding reached regarding access to individuals, sites and information.

The Security Council set up UNIIIC after an earlier U.N. mission found Lebanon's own investigation seriously flawed and Syria primarily responsible for the political tension preceding Hariri's slaying.

In the latest report, Brammertz wrote that UNIIIC intended to request "full, unhindered and direct access" to documents, facilities and sites, as well as interviews with Syrian citizens.

Despite the cited progress, "it is important to note that the commission will ultimately judge cooperation of the Syrian authorities on the merits of the information provided and promptness with which its requests are being accommodated," he added.