A preliminary United Nations report into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri concludes that high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese security officials were involved in the murder.
The report represents the first official linking between government officials in Damascus and the car bomb that killed Mr Hariri and 20 others on February 14th and was almost certain to increase already heightened tensions in the region.
The decision to assassinate Mr Hariri "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials and could not have been further organised without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security services," the report said.
UN officials gave investigators two more months to pursue the investigation and set Security Council debate on the report for Tuesday.
Questions were also raised about Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Syria's staunchest ally. He received a phone call minutes before the blast from the brother of a prominent member of a pro-Syrian group - a call that should be part of a further investigation, the report said.
The strongly worded report by chief investigator Detlev Mehlis did not call for the arrest of any Syrians, however, but it was highly critical of the Syrian government. It accused Syrian authorities of trying to mislead the investigation, and directly accused Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa of lying in a letter sent to Mr Mehlis's commission.
Earlier this week, a US official and two UN diplomats said the United States and France were preparing new Security Council resolutions critical of Syria over its alleged involvement in the assassination and alleged arms funneling to Lebanese militias.