BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's central bank said on Monday it had lifted its traditional banking secrecy and frozen five accounts under investigation in connection with the killing of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Governor Riad Salameh told Reuters the central bank had provided information on a total of 15 accounts to U.N. investigators, but was legally prohibited from publicly identifying the account-holders.

"There was the first level on the request of the International Investigation Commission ... which was an exchange of information, but bank secrecy was still kept on the accounts and the accounts were free to move," he said in an interview.

"On the second stage, some of these accounts were frozen, the bank secrecy lifted and their files transferred to the (Lebanese) public prosecutor to follow up. The final decision on the status of the accounts goes back to the courts in Lebanon."

Judicial sources said earlier this month that the public prosecutor had asked Banque du Liban to freeze the accounts of four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals arrested in August as suspects in Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination.

In September, banking and political sources said Banque du Liban had agreed to open up the accounts of several Syrian and Lebanese figures to the U.N. team investigating the bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut.

The sources said they included Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan, Damascus's security chief in Lebanon for 20 years, who has since apparently committed suicide.

Also on the list was his successor, Rustom Ghazali, who left Lebanon when Syrian troops withdrew in April under international and local pressure in the aftermath of the murder, they said. The Lebanese included former deputy Nasser Qandil, who is close to Syria, and pro-Syrian newspaper owner Charles Ayyoub.

Banking secrecy was apparently not lifted in those cases. Salameh declined to say whether he expected more requests to lift bank secrecy now the U.N. has extended the investigating team's mandate until mid-December, but said the central bank would cooperate with the probe within the framework of Lebanese law.

The U.N. inquiry reported last week that the killing could not have taken place without the knowledge of Syrian officials.

"I believe it is in the interest of the banking sector, the reputation of Lebanon and preserving our law on bank secrecy as now the whole world knows that (the) law will not obstruct investigations that are of a criminal nature," Salameh said.

"The general rule in Lebanon is bank secrecy, and lifting it is the exception." (Reuters)