BEIRUT, Lebanon - Former Syrian vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam said the beleaguered regime of President Bashar al-Assad is incapable of reform and must be overthrown, in remarks published Friday.

Khaddam, who oversaw Syria's domination of neighbouring Lebanon for 25 years, also said he would meet soon with members of the UN panel investigating last February's assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.

Senior Syrian officials have been implicated in the case, but Damascus has denied any involvement in the killing, or those of three other prominent anti-Syrian figures since then.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Khaddam said no decision in Syria to kill Hariri could have been taken without Assad's assent.

"Nobody can take this decision but the president, because this operation needs a lot of resources, in terms of finance and personnel," he said.

"And no Syrian general can provide those kinds of resources, both financial and personnel, unless there is a (presidential) decision."

In a separate interview broadcast by France 3 television Thursday evening, he said Assad should be thrown in jail.

"He should go. To the house ... to prison," Khaddam said when asked about Assad's future.

"The most important thing is to save Syria from this regime," he said, adding that "those who were behind the assassination in Lebanon continue to kill because their goal is to create chaos."

Khaddam said he believed his life was "in danger," even in France, where he and his family now live.

In a third interview published by the Saudi-owned daily Asharq Al-Awsat, he insisted: "This regime cannot be reformed. The only alternative is to overthrow it."

He said he was "working to bring about the suitable conditions for Syrians to pour into the streets and act to overthrow the Syrian regime so that things go well".

Asked about possible cooperation with the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Khaddam said change was what was important, "and anyone who wants to work in that direction is welcome."

However he insisted that the impetus should come from Syrians and not from foreign governments.

"If the main vector for change is external, then the interests of the country are harmed," he said.

Khaddam caused an uproar a week ago when he said Assad had personally threatened Hariri a few months before he was murdered, dealing a fresh blow to the increasingly pressured regime.

Before he resigned in June, Khaddam had been a leading member of the regime's old guard. He had been seen as a possible successor to Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez, who died in 2000.

But the 73-year-old's late conversion to the opposition cause failed to convince some dissidents in Damascus, who saw foreign machinations behind his sudden high profile in the West.

"It's unlikely that a figure like Khaddam would take such an initiative without having some sort of plan agreed with international, regional or local actors," said journalist Yassin al-Hajj Saleh, a former political prisoner.

Dissident film-maker Omar Amirallay said the former vice president would never have any credibility as an oppositionist.

"He is responsible for so many crimes and injustices that he has no chance of finding a role in a democratic Syria," Amirallay told AFP.

"It's true that his revelations will help Syria in the long term because they are contributing to the falling apart of the regime but that in no way excuses him for the wrongs he has committed."

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