Beirut, 6 Oct. (AKI) - The Lebanese authorities have lifted banking secrecy on the accounts of three new suspects in the 14 February assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

This will allow the UN commission probing Hariri's death to check the financial dealings of Wasif Abd al-Nabi Sarhan, an official in the presidential guard, Faysal Muhammad Rashid,a state security official, and Ahmad Amin Abd al-Ali, head of the al-Ahbash Islamic charity, considered "close to the Syrian-Lebanese secret services" and their families.

The international commission of inquiry, headed by Detlev Mehlis, is reported to be convinced of ties between these three new suspects and Mustafa Hamdan, former chief of the presidential guard, who was arrested in August in connection with the carbomb killing of Hariri.

Three other former heads of the Lebanese secret services are also being detained on the same charges.

On Wednesday, prime minister Fuad Siniora, addressing parliament on the security situation in the country, publicly admitted that in the past "the Lebanese secret services worked in close collaboration with their Syrian counterparts".