"All indications are that Mehlis will implicate some Syrian officials in the case," one Lebanese political source said. At least two other sources, from different sides of Lebanon's political spectrum, and a diplomat concurred.

Such a move would bring Syria under international pressure to give up indicted suspects for trial and intensify calls for pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud to resign, they added.

It could also provoke further instability in Lebanon, where bombings and assassinations since Hariri's February 14 killing have created the worst security crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Many Lebanese already blame Syria and some of its Lebanese allies for the bomb that killed Hariri and 20 others in Beirut.

Mehlis took a team of investigators to Damascus last week to question at least seven Syrian officials, political sources said. The questioning lasted four days and the sources say those interviewed included senior intelligence officers in Lebanon at the time of Hariri's killing and their superiors in Damascus.

After Mehlis's trip, Syrian officials said their country was cooperating and that the investigator had no Syrian suspects.

Mehlis, due to make his findings public by October 24, has revealed few details of his investigation. A U.N. official in Beirut declined to comment on its likely outcome.

Lebanon has already arrested four pro-Syrian generals, on Mehlis's recommendation, and charged them with murder.

"The work of the investigators is almost done. They have broken the case. Mehlis will go all the way and charge Syrian officials," another Lebanese political source said.

In September the central bank lifted secrecy rules and ordered banks to let investigators see the accounts of several Syrian and Lebanese figures, bankers said. They asked not to be named.

The bankers said the accounts belong to the four Lebanese generals, Syria's former intelligence chief in Lebanon Rustum Ghazali and his predecessor Ghazi Kanaan, who is now Interior Minister, as well as their wives and children.

Ghazali and Kanaan were among those questioned by the U.N. team in Damascus last week, Lebanese political sources say.

DEFECTOR, PHONE INTERCEPTS

They say a key element in the investigation is the testimony of a Syrian military defector who says he attended meetings at which Hariri's killing was discussed.

Syrian sources have sought to discredit the defector, whom they identify as Mohammed Siddiq, calling him a low-ranking soldier who had spent time in jail for fraud and then deserted.

A security source close to the inquiry said telephone intercepts on the day of Hariri's killing had provided another piece of the jigsaw. Investigators believe the truck bomb was detonated remotely, possibly by an infrared device to bypass jamming equipment in Hariri's motorcade, the source added.

The U.N. probe is concerned only with Hariri's killing, but many Lebanese also blame Damascus for subsequent bomb attacks that have fuelled fears the country may slide back into chaos.

Once an ally of Syria, Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr stunned his compatriots on Monday when he said he had fallen out with Ghazali a year ago and received death threats in January. Murr survived an attempt on his life in July.

He told LBC television by telephone from Zurich that he had spent periods abroad before the attack "because the security agencies at that time were not interested in...protecting (me)".

Syria rejected Murr's remarks as "lies".

The heads of the security agencies referred to by Murr are the four generals arrested in connection with Hariri's killing.

Their arrests have already increased pressure on President Lahoud to resign. He has rejected calls to step down ever since the assassination of Hariri, his bitterest rival.

Hariri's killing sparked street protests and global pressure that forced Syria to end its 29-year troop presence in Lebanon.

Whatever the outcome of the U.N. inquiry, political sources say prosecutors are likely to try to bring the case before an international criminal court because it is seen as too big for Lebanon's judiciary to handle alone. (Reuters)