Lebanese PM: We’ll bring Lahoud down

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora said Sunday that the Lebanese people will use democratic means to force the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud to resign.

“The Lebanese people know how to bring about the resignation of the president, Emile Lahoud, through democratic means in Parliament,” Saniora told al-Arabia television channel.

Saniora expressed his opposition to imposing economic sanctions on Syria yet said he believes the killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri should be sanctioned.

Earlier Syrian President Bashar Assad sent letters to U.N. Security Council members before they consider action on a report implicating top Syrian aides in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"President Assad sent letters to Security Council members that relate to the Syrian position over the U.N. probe," the Syrian News Agency SANA said, without elaborating on the content of the letter.

A Security Council session is already planned for Tuesday, and it may ask Syria to cooperate with the U.N. investigation.

Also on Sunday, Romanian President Traian Basescu said that Syria should be warned by the United Nations Security Council to stop being "a factor of instability" in the Middle East.

Romania currently holds the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council. Basescu made the remarks after meeting U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, who was on a two-day visit to Bucharest.

During his meeting with Hadley, Basescu discussed Syria and the situation in Lebanon, including the February assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

A recent report by U.N. Investigator Detlev Mehlis apparently established a clear link between Syrian

officials and their Lebanese allies in the assassination of Hariri.

"The first step should be continuing investigations (into the assassination) and the second one should be a very serious warning to Syria to cease being a factor of instability in the area," said Basescu adding that Syria should be given a chance to show good faith in the immediate future on the basis of a UN resolution.

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Romania has said it plans to concentrate its efforts on issues relating to conflicts in Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon and the Middle East peace process during its presidency.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC Television in a joint interview the investigation strongly implicated Syria and indicated attempts at a cover-up.

"I am quite sure that when the international community gets together we will decide what to do but it can't be... Left lying on the table," Rice said. "This really has to be dealt with."

On Wednesday the Security Council is expected to receive a report from Terje Roed-Larsen, the U.N. special envoy on Lebanon-Syria, about disarming Lebanese militias and the extend of Syria's compliance with Resolution 1559, which calls on it to withdraw from Lebanon and stop interfering in its smaller neighbor's affairs.

Roee Nahmias contributed to this report