UNITED NATIONS - Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz is expected to be named next month to succeed Detlev Mehlis as head of the UN probe into the slaying of Lebanon's ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, according to UN officials and diplomats.

They said Brammertz, the deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), had already been picked by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan but noted that the appointment would not be made official until next month, pending completion of security and other arrangements.

Brammertz has widely been expected to take up the job and Mehlis, the German prosecutor who has led the Hariri murder probe for the past six months, said last week he had proposed the Belgian as his successor.

"We are not going to announce an appointment until 11 January," UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Thursday. "But we can confirm the secretary general has completed the selection process and is undertaking the consultation process. He is satisfied there will be continuity in the leadership of the enquiry."

The mandate of the UN investigation into the Hariri slaying last February has been prolonged by six months, but Mehlis has declined to continue in the position.

Mehlis has released two reports since October on the Hariri murder, implicating Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officers.

And in an interview earlier this month, he unequivocally accused Syria of being behind the assassination of Hariri in a February 14 car bombing in Beirut.

Asked by the Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat if he was "perfectly convinced of Syria's responsibility in the murder of Hariri," Mehlis said: "Yes. The Syrian authorities are responsible," without giving further details.

Hariri's death set off a massive domestic and international outcry that led to Syria pulling its troops out of Lebanon after dominating the country for 30 years.

Brammertz has probed abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Sudan's Darfur conflict and in Uganda since he was appointed as head of the investigations division in the prosecutor's office at the ICC in 2003.

Copyright © 1999-2005 Lebanonwire^®.com. All rights reserved.