Following a Cabinet session Thursday, Hamadeh told reporters that the recorded mobile calls, which the German UN investigator Detlev Mehlis alluded to in his report to the UN Security Council, were tapped by sources “outside the telecommunication ministry.”

The Lebanese pro-Syrian Sunni Muslim group Al-Ahbash, which describes itself a charitable organization is at the center of the Hariri probe, which has named Ahmad Abdel-Al and his brother Mahmoud as key suspects in connection with the murder.

According to the UN report released last week, Mahmoud Abdel-Al telephoned President Emile Lahoud just minutes before the blast in one of the most important leads in this investigation.

According to the Mehlis report, a shop owned by an alleged member of the group with close ties to Ahmad Abdel-Al sold six pre-paid mobile phone cards “which telephone records demonstrate were instrumental in the planning of the assassination.”

Meanwhile, Future Movement leader Saad Hariri told Reuters on Thursday that “it might be premature to talk about sanctions against Syria.”

“We are calling for all concerned parties named in the Mehlis report to contribute in bringing to justice the criminals involved in the Hariri murder, to be tried in a an international criminal tribunal,” Hariri said.

Hariri said, “If this requires punishing high ranking officials, whether they’re Lebanese or Syrians, then we wouldn’t object.”

“We reiterate that we would not compromise over the blood of Hariri and those who fell with him,” Hariri said.

On Thursday, French President Jacques Chirac concurred with Hariri on the need for an international tribunal to convict the criminals named in the probe.

“If Syria hasn’t cooperated yet, we should act in a way to force that cooperation,” Chirac said indicating that such a trial cannot be held in Lebanon.

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