BEIRUT, January 2, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The UN commission probing the killing of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri has asked to meet Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shara, its spokeswoman said on Monday, January 2.

"The commission has already sent a request to interview Syrian President Assad and Foreign Minister Shara, among others," the spokeswoman told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

UN investigators will also try to meet former vice president Abdel-Halim Khaddam as soon as possible, she added.

Khaddam, now living in Paris after resigning in June, said in a television interview aired on Friday, December 30, that Assad had threatened Hariri months before his February 14 assassination in Beirut.

"We will destroy anyone who tries to hinder our decisions," he quoted Assad as telling Hariri in a Damascus meeting.

"What Mr. Khaddam said corroborates information the commission has received and said in two reports," said the spokeswoman, declining to give further details.

A UN interim report in October accused Shara of giving the commission "false information" by describing a meeting between Assad and Hariri as friendly, contrary to several Lebanese witnesses who said the president had threatened Hariri.

The UN inquiry has already implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the killing of the five-time prime minister, which sparked mass anti-Syrian protests, leading to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after 29 years.

Numir Ghanem, head of the Syrian parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, told Al-Jazeera that Damascus has not yet received an official request from the UN commission to meet the president.

He said Damascus would not accept that the dignity of the Syrian people be "trespassed".

"Mr. Assad has pledged full Syrian cooperation with the UN commission as long as it neither contravenes the country’s sovereignty nor trespasses the dignity of the Syrians," said the senior lawmaker.

"When we receive an official request from the UN, we will surely study it carefully and decide accordingly."

It remains to be seen whether Assad and Shara will agree to the interview demands, having rebuffed previous requests from the previous inquiry chief, Detlev Mehlis.

Mehlis said in an interview with an Arab newspaper in mid-December he was convinced that Syria was responsible for Hariri's murder.

In an interview with CNN in October, Assad vehemently rejected any notion he had played a personal role in the Hariri assassination. He asserted that any Syrian found guilty should be punished.

A UN Security Council resolution in October threatened Damascus with unspecified action if it fails to cooperate with the investigation.

The ruling Baath party expelled Khaddam over "treason". (Reuters)

Syria's ruling Baath party on Sunday, January 1, expelled Khaddam, one of its longest-serving officials and the architect of Syria's military and political intervention in neighboring Lebanon.

"The national leadership has decided to throw Khaddam out of the party. It considers him a traitor. Khaddam has betrayed the party, the homeland and the (Arab) nation," the party leadership said in a statement.

The party, which has ruled Syria with an iron grip since 1963, described Khaddam's comments as a "slander which violates the principles of the nation".

Parliament members had earlier called for Khaddam to be tried for treason for his bombshell.

Pundits have said that Khaddam’s explosive statements have sent seismic waves in Damascus and would tighten the noose around the Arab country.

They expected the bombshell to expedite the collapse of the Syrian regime.