OTTAWA - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday the United States wants Syria held to account for a range of issues but is willing to tackle them one by one at the United Nations.

Speaking to reporters en route to Canada, Rice suggested a flexible US approach to upcoming UN Security Council talks on action to punish Damascus for its alleged involvement in the February assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

Rice said the United States has other issues with Syria, including its continuing influence in Lebanon, "so we'll take a look at the total picture as well."

But she added, "if people want to sequence it, fine. We can sequence it."

"But we need to recognize that there are other UN Security Council resolutions that are also at stake," Rice said.

The US secretary of state appeared to be alluding to French calls to confine the deliberations in the Security Council to the Hariri assassination.

The Security Council was to be briefed on Tuesday by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who led the UN investigation into the Hariri murder and released a damning report last week that found "converging evidence of both Syrian and Lebanese involvement."

Rice said the United States hoped to hold a ministerial-level meeting of the UN Security Council on October 31.

"We believe that there will be a ministerial on the 31st," she said. "It's not yet agreed but we're talking to partners about a ministerial on the 31st where we would expect to consider next steps.

"I don't want to get ahead on the diplomacy here," she added. "There are a number of options on the table here."

But, she continued, "I suspect there would be some kind of resolution in response to the Mehlis report."

Rice said the international community had to "send a strong signal to Syria that it's non-cooperation is not going to be tolerated ... (and) it should not even contemplate trying to put pressure or intimidate the Lebanese people."

Asked whether an eventual trial of suspects in the Hariri assassination could take place in Lebanon or possibly be moved to the Hague or elsewhere, she said "there are many options being put forth but I would hope that it would include at a minimum some means of Lebanese participation."

Damascus has denied any role in the bomb blast that killed Hariri and 20 others on the Beirut seafront, and has rejected the probe's findings that senior Syrian officials were involved in his murder.

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