DAMASCUS - The Syrian government said Monday it will put on trial former vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who has linked Damascus to Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri's murder, for high treason and investigate him for corruption.

The announcement came after Khaddam's explosive allegation that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had threatened Hariri a few months before his death, which he made in an interview Friday on Al-Arabiya television.

"The Council of Ministers will take the necessary measures to try Khaddam for high treason, and to open an inquiry into corruption in a series of matters which will include seizing his assets," official daily newspaper Ath-Thawra said.

The newspaper said the government announcement meant it would follow up on demands made by loyalist MPs, who called for Khaddam to be tried for treason and corruption.

Ath-Thawra also quoted ordinary Syrians interviewed about the situation who said "punishing him is a national duty," and called Khaddam "a traitor who sold his conscience for a fistful of dollars".

Syria's ruling Baath party has said it had expelled the ex-vice president for comments it described as "slander which violates the principles of the nation".

Parliamentary speaker Mahmud al-Abrash called Monday for Khaddam to be brought to trial as quickly as possible, in a letter addressed to Justice Minister Mohammed Ghafri.

"We ask you to take the necessary measures for Abdel Halim Khaddam, who committed the crime of treason and damaged state security, to be judged by the competent courts as soon as possible," it read.

Khaddam, long the architect of Syria's military and political domination of neighbouring Lebanon, accused Assad of threatening Hariri just months before his murder, dealing a fresh blow to the increasingly pressured Syrian regime.

"I will destroy anyone who tries to hinder our decisions," Khaddam quoted Assad as telling Hariri during a meeting in Damascus.

Khaddam, who broke his silence for the first time since resigning in June and was speaking from Paris where he and his family now live, said the meeting took place a few months before the February 14 assassination of Hariri.

The popular five time prime minister was killed in a Beirut bomb blast for which a UN probe has implicated Syrian intelligence.

"We must await the results of the investigation, but no Syrian security service could take such a decision unilaterally," Khaddam said.

The UN commission of inquiry probing Hariri's murder asked Monday to interview Assad, Khaddam and Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara and was awaiting an answer from Syria, a spokeswoman in Beirut said.

She added that the commission wanted to meet Khaddam "as soon as possible".

But the Damascus government daily Tishrin blasted Khaddam for his allegations against his country.

"We were surprised by Khaddam's mudslinging against his country ... he is the last one who can talk about corruption," it wrote Monday.

Khaddam was "the first to get in the way of reform measures. During all the (Baath) party meetings he warned against the risks of introducing democratic freedoms and economic and administrative reforms" in Syria, Tishrin said.

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