BEIRUT - The leader of a U.N. international investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has written to Israel, Syria and Jordan asking for assistance, the Security Council was told on Monday.

Anne Patterson, the acting U.S. ambassador, said after council consultations, she presumed the request was for any information they had available, such as people who might have crossed borders from Lebanon's three neighbors.

Veteran German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis has organized a team of about 30 experts from his own country, the Netherlands, and Britain, Patterson said.

Hariri was killed by a car bomb in broad daylight on Feb. 14 in Beirut after he accused Syria of meddling in Lebanon's internal politics. Lebanese opposition politicians blamed Damascus for his death, which Syria has vigorously denied.

"He (Mehlis) has written to Jordan, Syria and Israel asking for assistance (because) they are neighbors," Patterson said. "To me this make sense, given my experience overseas."

"You would want to know who crossed the borders and so you would ask neighboring countries what their customs records show," Patterson said, adding that this was her presumption and not part of the briefing given to the council by Ibrahim Gambari, the undersecretary-general for political affairs.

Mehlis, who arrived in Beirut last month, has three months to complete his work under a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the investigation. But if he finds he needs more time, the council can grant him an extra three months.

Syria, which dominated Lebanon for three decades, agreed under international pressure to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon following protest when Hariri was killed.

The Security Council ordered an outside inquiry in April after a U.N. fact-finding mission, led by Irish Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, concluded that Lebanon's own inquiry into the killing had "serious flaws" and could not reach a credible conclusion. (Reuters)