The son of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri has hailed a UN investigation that implicated Syrian officials in his father's killing and called for an international court to punish the perpetrators.
"We in Lebanon... the Hariri family accept the results of the report and the conclusions that the commission sets forth," Saad al-Hariri said in a televised statement from the Saudi city of Jeddah.
"We call on the international community to uphold its support for the international commission into the assassination of Mr Hariri to unearth the full truth and bring the perpetrators to justice in an international court. We are not seeking revenge, we are seeking justice," he added.
US President George W. Bush urged the United Nations yesterday to quickly meet and consider a response to the investigation that implicated senior Syrian officials in Mr Hariri's February 14th assassination.
"The report is deeply disturbing," Mr Bush said, adding that he had asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to request that the United Nations "convene a session as quickly as possible" to discuss the report.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Security Council members would consider sanctions but he did not elaborate on how much support such a proposal would get.
Russia, which has a veto on the Council, is a traditional ally of Syria. A council session has already been planned for Tuesday. It may ask for Syria to co-operate with the UN investigation led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis.
The UN report, published on Thursday, said the decision to kill Mr Hariri "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials" colluding with counterparts in Lebanon.
Syrian officials have dismissed the report as political and said the charges were false.