DAMASCUS - Syria, which has denied ordering the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, is cooperating with a UN probe of the killing in order to prove its innocence, a top official said Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem added that Syria itself has become a victim of the crime because of the deterioration in its relations with neighboring Lebanon, a country it dominated for decades.

Speaking on national television from New York, Muallem said "Syria has cooperated totally with the international magistrate and commits itself to do so as long as (the probe) remains professional."

He was speaking a day after a UN report cited evidence that a suicide bomber detonated up to 1.8 tonnes of explosives that killed Hariri and 22 others on the Beirut waterfront in February 2005.

The report, by chief UN investigator Serge Brammertz, also noted further Syrian cooperation with the probe.

"The cooperation that the commission has received from the Syrian Arab Republic has remained generally satisfactory and the commission continues to require its full support in providing information and facilitating interviews with individuals located on Syrian territory," it said.

A report by Brammertz's German predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, had implicated senior officials from Syria.

And the Brammertz report expanded on links previously found between the Hariri slaying and some 14 other attacks against anti-Syrian Lebanese figures between October 2004 and December 2005.

Commenting on the probe, Muallem said "we have an interest in the truth coming to light over this crime, of which we are the victims," referring to soured relations with Lebanon and political maneuvering by anti-Syrian forces.

Saying he was "sure Syria is innocent," he added that "no one in the world acts against his own interests."

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