UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations braces for the release of a potentially explosive report on the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri that could trigger UN action against Damascus for its alleged meddling in Lebanon.

UN chief Kofi Annan was due Thursday to receive the long-awaited report by German terrorism magistrate Detlev Mehlis, the head of the UN probe into last February's Hariri slaying, a UN spokesman said.

The report, the result of four months of painstaking investigation, was then to be forwarded Friday to the UN Security Council, which authorized the probe, and to the Lebanese government, according to spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Hariri died along with 20 others last February in a massive Beirut bomb blast. Lebanon's long-time powerbroker Syria and its political allies in Lebanon at the time have been widely accused of having a hand in the killing, which plunged the nation into turmoil. Damascus has strenuously denied the allegations.

Even before the report was released, Washington served notice Wednesday that it was pushing for possible UN action against Syria for Damascus' alleged interference in Lebanon and its aiding of Iraqi insurgents.

US and UN diplomats said the push for possible sanctions against Syria depending on the outcome of the Mehlis report was being coordinated by the United States, France and Britain.

"There are discussions about what is the appropriate mechanism to address Syrian behavior within the UN context," said a senior State Department official who asked not to be named and did not elaborate.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Washington was taking "new diplomatic steps" to stop aid to Iraqi insurgents from Syria and Iran.

But the Washington Post reported Wednesday that the United States and France were planning to propose two resolutions at the UN Security Council next week to hold Syria accountable for meddling in Lebanon.

France would only say that it was pursuing "useful contacts" with its various partners at the UN to prepare future moves on the Syrian issue.

Annan stressed that Mehlis would produce a purely "technical" report and warned against trying to politicize it. He also appealed for calm and restraint in anticipation of the inevitable political fallout in the Middle East.

Four high-ranking Lebanese security officials with close ties to Syria are being held in custody by Lebanese authorities on the recommendation of the Mehlis panel.

UN investigators went to Damascus in September where they grilled officials including Ghazi Kanaan, the interior minister who had previously served as Syria's military intelligence supremo in Lebanon for 20 years and was found dead in his Damascus office last Wednesday.

Annan has said he will not rule on a Lebanese government's request to extend the mandate of the UN probe to December 15 until he receives the Mehlis report.

In the letter to Annan, Lebanese Premier Fuad Siniora said the purpose of the extension was to enable the commission to assist Lebanese authorities "in any further investigation of the various dimensions" of the Hariri murder and exploring follow-up measures to the findings.

Quoting Lebanese security sources, the As-Safir newspaper newspaper said Saturday that Mehlis had asked Damascus to allow him to probe the reported suicide of Kanaan and to carry out an autopsy" on the general.

But UN officials said widening the Hariri murder probe to cover other developments such as Kanaan's death would require another Security Council resolution.

Lebanese politician Saad Hariri on Wednesday called for an international trial for suspects in his father's assassination.

"We could not carry out the investigation and requested the help of the UN. Of course we will demand an international trial," Hariri told reporters in Cairo.

Syria may meanwhile come under further pressure in a separate report looking at whether it has abided by a UN resolution to respect Lebanon's sovereignty.

UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen is due to hand over a report next week examining implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which was designed to end Syrian domination of Lebanon and extend the government's authority throughout the country.

The report was originally supposed to be delivered on Wednesday but has been postponed until next week, Dujarric said.

While in Paris earlier this week, Roed-Larsen had separate talks with Siniora and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on the fate of Palestinian militias in Lebanon.

Siniora's visit to Paris coincided with the announcement of the arrest in France of a Syrian former intelligence operative, Zuheir Mohammed Said Assediq, who is wanted in Lebanon in connection with the Hariri murder.

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