LONDON - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad affirmed Thursday that he would meet in April with the UN inquiry into the February 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
"Next month, in April, we have told them formally in a letter, we're going to meet with the president and the vice president" of the inquiry that is led by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, he told Britain's Sky News television.
Speaking in English, Assad stressed that the encounter would be a "meeting" - and "not for interrogation... it's different from interrogation" - and that the UN side would be able to "ask for everything".
"We expect them to ask about the political background of the problem, or the relations between Syria and Lebanon and all these things."
Syria is suspected of involvement in the February 14, 2005 bomb blast in the Lebanese capital which killed Hariri, a billionaire businessman who was prime minister in 1992-98 and 2000-04, and 22 other people.
In a report Thursday to the UN Security Council, Brammertz cited progress in his investigation into Hariri's killing, but stressed that Syrian cooperation would be "a critical factor" in order to make further headway.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, currently on a swing through Africa, spoke with Assad by telephone Thursday and voiced hope Damascus would continue to cooperate with the Hariri probe, a spokesman said.
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