Canadian to head U.N. Hariri murder probe

Two days before heading into the crisis-hit country, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon Tuesday picked a Canadian, Daniel Bellemare, to replace Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz as head of the U.N. probe into the 2005 murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.

In a letter sent to the U.N. Security Council, the secretary general, said Bellemare, until recently Canada's deputy Attorney General, would take over from Brammertz, who has just been nominated to be the new chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Ban thanked Brammertz, whose mandate expires on December 31, "for his leadership in advancing the investigation and for his commitment to assisting the Lebanese government and people in bringing and to impunity in their country."

He said the 55-year-old Bellemare, who retired from Canada's department of justice and public service last September 29, would begin his official duties as chief investigator in the Hariri probe "at a later date."

Bellemare's appointment is expected to be endorsed by the 15-member Security Council.

Brammertz, a former deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has been in charge of the Hariri probe since January 2006, when he succeeded German magistrate Detlev Mehlis.

Mehlis had implicated in the Hariri slaying senior officials from Syria, which for three decades was the power broker in its smaller neighbor.

Damascus has strongly denies any connection with that murder as well as with the string of assassinations of other anti-Syrian Lebanese figures.

Presidential crisis

Meanwhile, Ki-moon will visit Lebanon on Thursday to push the country's feuding political leaders to reach consensus on a looming presidential election, a Lebanese official said Tuesday.

"He is coming to call for free and democratic presidential elections in Lebanon, without foreign intervention and within the constitutional deadline," the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

Ban's visit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity to break a deadlock between the country's pro- and anti-Syrian camps that is threatening a presidential vote to replace the current head of state Emile Lahoud, whose mandate expires November 24.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has already cancelled three sessions for MPs to elect a successor to Lahoud and there are fears that a last-ditch session on November 21 would meet the same fate, thus plunging the country into further chaos.

The Lebanese official said that apart from discussing the political crisis, the UN chief would also meet with the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed along Lebanon's volatile border with Israel and will discuss the international tribunal due to be established to try suspects in Hariri's murder.