DAMASCUS - Belgian foreign minister Karel de Gucht expressed his "disappointment" Tuesday at Syria's refusal to transfer any Syrian suspect to an international tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

At a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart, de Gucht said he was told by Syrian officials that even if there was evidence of involvement of a Syrian national in the Hariri assassination, this was a matter for a Syrian court, not an international tribunal.

"I was disappointed to learn that even if with the evidence that your country (Syria) is not ready to transfer an inductee to the Hariri tribunal and you only will try it in front of your national criminal court and I think that is contrary to the principles of international law," de Gucht said.

Sooner or later, he said, "we will come to point where the people responsible would have to be judged and punished. We are not looking for a political tribunal. It should impartial, and should be based on a very clear-cut understanding of criminal law."

The Belgian minister also said he appealed for Syrian President Bashar Assad to accept the involvement of international monitoring on the border with Lebanon to prevent arms smuggling to Hezbollah - but received a negative response from Vice-President Farouk al-Sharaa.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem denied there was any arms smuggling to Lebanon, saying: "I stress that all these rumours about smuggling arms through the borders into Lebanon are untrue."

He renewed Syria's threat to close the border with Lebanon if international monitors were deployed on the borders, which would be an attempt by the West "to put Syria and Lebanon into a war-like situation."

Disarming groups in Lebanon was a "Lebanese affair", he added, and warned "not to pressure Lebanon in this regard, because it may lead to an explosion of the situation" there. -DPA