BERLIN - The UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri will not directly implicate chief suspect Syria, a German daily said Saturday, quoting a source close to the United Nations in Beirut.

Detlev Mehlis, the German judge heading the probe into Hariri's death in a Beirut bombing in February, is due to deliver his report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on October 21.

He has interviewed top Lebanese and Syrian officials, but the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung quoted its source as saying he would not point the finger directly at Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

"It will not lead to the expected earthquake," the source said, but would name senior officials of the pro-Syrian Lebanese intelligence services.

Lebanese authorities earlier this month arrested four former Lebanese security chiefs in connection with the killing following recommendations from the UN inquiry.

Hariri's assassination and a UN Security Council resolution passed the previous September led to Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon after a 29-year military presence.

Lebanon has been rocked by a string of bombings, sometimes fatal, since Hariri's killing.

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