MOSCOW - Russia's foreign minister encouraged Syria to cooperate fully with the United Nations investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and said Moscow sees no reason for sanctions against Damascus, according to an interview published Monday.

Sergey Lavrov was quoted by the daily Vremya Novostei as saying he would di

discuss the UN inquiry with his Syrian counterpart, Walid Moallem, who arrived Sunday on a three-day visit to Moscow.

"The probe is going on, and Syria is cooperating with that," Lavrov said. "We will encourage it to fully cooperate, and we don't see any reason for sanctions."

The UN Security Council has twice accused Syria of failing to cooperate fully with the investigation, which has implicated Syrian intelligence officials.

The new head of the inquiry, Serge Brammertz, is to issue his first report to the UN Security Council later this week.

A huge truck bomb killed Hariri, a powerful anti-Syrian figure, and 20 other people in central Beirut in February 2005.

Russia has opposed sanctions against its Soviet-era ally Syria but strongly urged Damascus to cooperate with the UN investigators.

Under pressure from the United States and France, Syria withdrew its long-standing military presence from Lebanon last year. But despite the election of a parliament in which anti-Syrian forces hold a majority, Syria remains a dominant political force in its smaller neighbor.

The top UN envoy for Syria and Lebanon, Terje Roed-Larsen, was also expected to be in Moscow for talks at the same time as the Syrian foreign minister, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. (AP)