BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syrian Foreign Ministry's legal adviser Riad Raoudi met in Barcelona, Spain, Friday with Detlev Mehlis, the U.N.-appointed investigator probing the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, according to most Lebanese news reports Saturday. The two men discussed the venue for questioning six senior security officials suspected of involvement in the assassination. Daoudi reportedly relayed to Mehlis Syria's suggestion to use U.N. offices in the Golan Heights for the questioning as an alternative to Mehlis' Monteverde HQ in Lebanon.

Beirut's leading daily An Nahar reported Saturday that there is an inclination to conduct the investigation with the six Syrian officials somewhere in Europe. It said that Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has informed U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan that Lebanon has no objections to holding the investigation outside Lebanese territory. At the same time, Syrian President Bashar Assad sent a written message to his Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud, explaining "why Syria had ruled out Lebanon as a venue" for the investigation, according to pro-Syrian daily As Safir.

An Nahar reported that the secretary general of the Saudi Arabian National Security Council, former Ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar Ben Sultan, was due to arrive in Damascus today for talks with Syrian officials. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have reportedly been playing an active role in helping to reduce tensions between Syria and the United States. After Damascus, Bandar is scheduled to a pay a visit to Paris, the paper said. It carried a report from South Korea saying that visiting U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin had jointly urged Syria to cooperate with the Hariri investigation team in line with U.N. Security Council resolution 1636. In Beirut, the Russian Ambassador, Serguei Boukin, also urged Syria to comply, but cautioned that implementation should not lead to instability of conditions in Lebanon. Boukin made the statement after meeting Lebanon's Labor minister Trad Hamadeh, who is known to sympathize with the Shiite group Hizbullah.

Meanwhile, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud received Friday a letter from his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, which observers said revolves around overall Lebanese-Syrian ties as well as cooperation and coordination between Lebanon and Syria, An Nahar and As Safir reported on Saturday. Secretary-General of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council, Nasri Khoury, delivered the letter to Lahoud. As Safir wrote that this is the first time, since the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in April, that Lahoud received a written message from Assad via a non-Syrian official.

The content of the letter has not been revealed as it was directed to Lahoud; however, sources quoted by the leftist As Safir said that the message included Syria's position of the developments related to the international investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, largely blamed on Syria. The paper said that Assad explained in the letter the reason behind his refusal of questioning six Syrian suspects in Lebanon by Detlev Mehlis, the UN investigator carrying out the probe.