CAIRO - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora urged Syria Thursday to cooperate with a UN probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, the official MENA news agency reported.

"We want the international commission to carry out its investigation without any impediments and we... hope that Syria cooperates with the international investigation commission," Siniora told reporters.

The Lebanese premier also called on Syria to stop supporting armed Palestinian groups in his country.

Siniora stressed the need for "an end to Syrian support for Palestinian gunmen outside the camps" if Damascus was truly concerned about Lebanon's stability and wanted to see and impovement in relations.

He was speaking after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The talks focused on Mubarak's recent consultations with regional and world leaders on developments related to the slaying in February last year of the former Lebanese prime minister, MENA said.

Mubarak briefed Siniora on the outcome of his meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Saudi monarch King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and French President Jacques Chirac.

Siniora's visit came only a few days after Assad held talks with the Egyptian leader amid increasing international pressure on Damascus over Hariri's assassination in a Beirut bomb blast.

A UN probe into the killing has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian officials and requested to interview Assad.

UN chief Kofi Annan named Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, 43, currently a deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, on Wednesday to replace German investigator Detlev Mehlis as head of the inquiry.

Former Syrian vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam, now in exile in Paris, has accused Assad of personally threatening Hariri a few months before the former Lebanese leader's murder.

Hariri's death sparked popular protests against Syria's domination of Lebanon, leading to the departure of thousands of Syrian troops from its smaller neighbour in April after a near 30-year presence.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been leading regional efforts to defuse tensions between Beirut and Damascus and encourage Syria to cooperate with the international probe into Hariri's assassination.

Siniora flew to Sharm el-Sheikh from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The visit was expected to last only a few hours.

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