An official statement said Prime Minister Fouad Siniora dispatched Parliament Education Minister Khaled Kabbani with the draft law regarding the international tribunal on the case of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. But the minister "didn't find any of the employees in their offices in Parliament to receive the draft," the prime minister's statement said.

The Cabinet then sent the draft bill to the legislature by mail, but the courier "was unable to enter the building to hand over the mail, as the administration of the parliament has lately been refusing to accept any mail sent by the Council of Ministers."

The Hezbollah-led opposition, which includes House Speaker Nabih Berri's Shiite Amal movement, rejected the draft bill on the international court that would try the suspects involved in Hariri's assassination in a massive bombing in Beirut in February 2005.

Berri hasn't recognized the Siniora government, backed by a parliamentary anti-Syrian majority, since the resignation of five Shiite ministers from the Cabinet last November.

The parliament's refusal to receive the draft bill is one of many procedural incidents highlighting the deep political crisis sweeping Lebanon, where the opposition has been staging an indefinite sit-in near the government since December, demanding a new national unity government that gives them greater participation in the Cabinet. -UPI