'Syria ready for U.N. team to meet Shara'

Syria has agreed to allow U.N. investigators to interview its foreign minister over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, diplomats said on Wednesday.

Syria was still considering a request by the U.N. team probing the February killing to meet President Bashar Assad, but an interview with Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara was acceptable, the diplomats said.

"The request is being considered while other capitals are in contact with Syria on the same subject," a diplomatic source said.

"As announced before, there is no objection that the committee meets Shara. That position did not change," the source added.

A senior Saudi official is expected to discuss in Damascus on Wednesday the issue of Syria's cooperation with the investigation. The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt held talks on the matter in Saudi on Tuesday.

The United States has warned Syria that its top officials should submit to the interviews in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for it to comply fully with the inquiry or face unspecified "Further action."

'Meeting would be outside Syria'

Syria has denied any role in the killing and has not commented on the request for an interview with its president, although it previously invited U.N. Chief Investigator Detlev Mehlis to meet with Shara.

The diplomatic sources gave no details on the possible date or venue of any meeting with Shara but said it would be outside Syria. The investigation team had no comment on the report.

Investigators questioned five Syrian officers in

Vienna last month. Mehlis said in a report to the Council later in December that the five were among 20 Lebanese and Syrian suspects in the murder.

Mehlis' team had questioned Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud over the murder and ordered the arrest of four Lebanese generals who were in charge of the country's security at the time of the crime.

U.N. Investigators also want to meet former Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, now living in Paris, as soon as possible.

Khaddam said in a television interview that Assad had threatened Hariri months before he was killed in Beirut in February 14.