NEW YORK - Family tragedy lies behind the debut of Hind Hariri, daughter of slain Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, as the youngest billionaire on Forbes Magazine's annual list of the world's wealthiest people.

Hariri, 22, with a net worth of 1.4 billion dollars, was ranked 562 among the 793 people on the list released Thursday.

She took the position of youngest billionaire by a mere eight-month advantage over Germany's Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis.

Since Rafiq Hariri's assassination in a car bomb in Beirut in February last year, Forbes noted that his young heirs -- all of them under 40 -- had "more then upheld the family name" both in business and politics.

The late premier's estate, shared by his widow and five children, was valued at 16.7 billion dollars in this year's Forbes roster -- almost four times greater than it was at the time of his death.

Hind was joined on the billionaire's list by her mother Nazek and elder brother Fahd, whose personal fortunes were estimated at 1.7 billion and 2.7 billion dollars respectively.

Rafiq Hariri had risen from humble beginnings as the son of a farm hand to become one of the world's richest men and spearheaded Lebanon's reconstruction after the devastating 1975-90 civil war.

He commanded a huge empire spanning banking, media, real estate and construction that stretched from Saudi Arabia to the United States.

With son Saad, 35, taking up his father's political mantle after his death, the family business has largely been tended by elder brother Bahaa, 39.

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