UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25 (AFP) - The murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri was organized by Syrian and Lebanese security officials, the head of the UN team probing the case said here Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after briefing the UN Security Council on his report summarizing a 130-day investigation into last February's slaying, Detlev Mehlis said: "the conclusion is that the assassination was organized by Syrian and Lebanese security officials."

The German prosecutor, who is leading a 30-member enquiry team, dodged a question on whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother, Maher, who is chief of the presidential guard, and his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, who heads military intelligence, were indeed suspects.

An early draft of the Mehlis report had quoted an unidentified witness as saying that the two men were among top Syrian and Lebanese security officials who plotted the Hariri murder.

But Mehlis said last week that the two names were subsequently taken out of the report because of "a presumption of innocence" and not to give the impression that these allegations were "an established fact."

Tuesday, he would not be drawn into discussion of the role of the two powerful members of Assad's inner circle but said there was a "considerable amount of evidence" pointing to Syrian involvement.

He cautioned that "the investigation can only target individuals. We were not supposed and we are not doing an investigation into a state, a country."

The report released last Thursday cited "probable cause" that the decision to kill Hariri "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security services."

Damascus has denied any role in the murder and has rejected the probe's findings as politically biased, incomplete and "a big lie."

Mehlis Tuesday dismissed comments by Syria's UN envoy Fayssal Mekdad suggesting the UN enquiry panel had jumped to conclusions and attacking the credibility of witnesses cited in the report.

"Some quarters either on the basis of a suspect premeditated scheme or out of bad faith have used this crime in a despicable manner in order to fan the flames of hostility against Syria and increase accusations against it," Mekdad told the council.

"It was to be expected that the report would be challenged, criticized," Mehlis retorted. "So I took care that the report was being drafted by investigators coming from as many different countries as possible."

He said the investigators who drafted the report came from Sweden, Switzerland, Britain, Germany, Egypt, the United States and Austria "to make it as credible as possible".

He made it clear that Damascus needed to cooperate more fully with the probe.

"We think that Syria has control over much more information than what it has been providing so far," he said. "We hope that this report and the activity of the Security Council will lead to a situation where Syria will be compelled to act."

In his briefing of the council, the German prosecutor noted that it was "entirely normal that a case of this type takes many months, if not years, to cover all aspects of investigation with certitude and to prepare a case for prosecution."

"For such a multidimensional and complex case as the one under review, the investigation cannot be considered complete as of now," he said. "More time should be allotted to further investigate our findings and look into emerging leads."

He said his team now had until December 15 to pursue its probe in line with an extension request made by the Lebanese government and approved by UN chief Kofi Annan.

"The Commission is of the view that this would provide yet another opportunity for the Syrian authorities to show greater and meaningful cooperation and to provide any relevant substantial evidence on the assassination," he added.

Mehlis also suggested that Syrian authorities conduct their own investigation into the murder "in an open and transparent manner."

"This would enable the commission to 'fill in the gaps' and to have a clearer picture about the organizers and perpetrators of the 14 February terrorist act."

Mehlis said that once the overall probe was completed it would be up to the Lebanese authorities "to seek the way ahead and determine the nature and location of any judicial mechanism to be set up."

He also said he was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Lebanese security and judicial officials.

"It's definitely a great step forward from the time we started working in Lebanon," he said, but added that it would "be very reassuring for the Lebanese to have ongoing international assistance."

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