CAIRO - Egypt and Saudi Arabia urged Syria to cooperate with the UN probe into Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri's murder to prevent "any harm" coming to Damascus, the Egyptian president's spokesman said Wednesday.

Soleiman Awad, quoted by Al-Ahram daily, said President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah agreed at a meeting Tuesday that the probe should work "to unveil the truth on the assassination ... in keeping with international law".

They also agreed during their talks in the Red Sea city of Jeddah that "the cooperation of Damascus with the international commission of inquiry is necessary to avoid any harm" to Syria, he said.

The two leaders also underlined "the need to preserve the historic links between Lebanon and Syria".

Mubarak was due to meet in Paris later Wednedsay with French President Jacques Chirac for talks focused on Syria, which has come under mounting pressure over last February's assassination of Hariri in a Beirut bomb blast.

Al-Ahram said Mubarak's consultations with King Abdullah and Chirac were part of his "regional and international actions to save the situation in Syria and Lebanon".

Former Syria vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who is based in Paris, charged last week that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had threatened Hariri just a few months before the assassination.

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