UNITED NATIONS - The new chief UN investigator looking into the murder of Lebanon's former premier Rafiq Hariri is to hand over his first report to the UN Security Council Tuesday, the UN said Monday.

Serge Brammertz, who arrived in New York Monday, was scheduled to brief the 15-member Council Thursday, the UN press office said.

But the press office said the enquiry report would not be released to the press immediately after it is handed over to the Security Council.

Last month, Brammertz, a 43-year-old Belgian prosecutor, came to UN headquarters to review progress in the enquiry since he took up his new duties January 23, succeeding German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis.

Since his nomination on January 11, Brammertz has conducted his mission in utmost secrecy. He made his first trip to Damascus on February 23 where he met with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

In January, the UN enquiry panel asked to interview Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Vice President Faruq al-Shareh, but there has been no word on whether any such contacts took place.

Hariri was killed along with 20 other people in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.

Two previous reports by the UN enquiry commission implicated Syria and Lebanon for top-level involvement in the plot to kill the billionaire ex-premier.

Syria, the longtime powerbroker in Lebanon, has denied involvement and blasted the reports as politically biased.

A UN diplomat last month said that the UN investigation, which is currently scheduled to end in mid-July, was leading to an international court trial.

"It is clear that we are heading toward the establishment of an international court to try those who will be charged in this affair and the mandate of the enquiry panel could be broadened to include the series of attacks against anti-Syrian Lebanese figures since 2004," the diplomat said.

In January, UN chief Kofi Annan asked Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel to travel to Beirut to assist efforts to bring those responsible for the Hariri murder before an international tribunal.

Mehlis said in a newspaper interview in December that the Syrian authorities "are responsible" for the Hariri killing.

A number of top Syrian officials have been interviewed in Vienna by UN investigators following an interim report which implicated Damascus in Hariri's killing and the commission also wants to question Assad.

Security Council resolution 1644, adopted December 15, acknowledged Lebanon's request for an international tribunal to try the accused for the Hariri murder and for an international probe into a dozen bombings that targeted anti-Syrian critics over the past year.

Brammertz is a former deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in charge of the investigations division.

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