France says too early for sanctions against Syria

BEIRUT - France says it is too early to seek sanctions against Syria, whose officials have been implicated by a UN report in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

The UN Security Council meets on Tuesday to discuss the report, and Paris said the body should demand Damascus cooperate fully with the UN inquiry that ends in mid December.

Tens of thousands of Syrians took part in state-sponsored rallies to protest at last week's report that said the killing in February "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials".

Britain said on Friday the council would consider sanctions but acknowledged it would be hard to win consensus.

The United States has also demanded action, but France, which has a veto on the council, said it would not consider sanctions until the end of the probe.

"We have here an opportunity to do justice with an independent inquiry. Let's go to the end ... if we need to make it longer, let's do it, and afterwards lets see what the consequences should be, including on the question... of sanctions," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said.

France was the former colonial power in Lebanon and Syria.

Lebanon's Hizbollah group and Amal Movement, two staunch pro-Syrian Shi'ite groups, rejected any talk of sanctions.

"Facing a pressure campaign led by the United States and Israel, we declare our rejection to any decision that wants to impose sanctions on Syria," they said in a joint statement.

"Reaching the truth needs more serious investigation which rests on facts and substantial evidence, and steering away from politicizing the findings."

Syrian officials also say the report is political and the charges false.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, demanded immediate cooperation from Syria.

"This is true confession time now for the government of Syria," he told reporters. "No more obstruction. No more half-measures. We want substantive cooperation, and we want it immediately."

SEA OF PROTESTERS

Syrians protesters, waving Syrian flags and pictures of President Bashar al-Assad, rallied in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, saying Washington instigated the UN probe to pile pressure on Syria for its struggle against Israel and opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"We don't fear America, down with America," some youths chanted. Others carried banners that read: "Syria is not another Iraq" and "Syria will not kneel to America."

Witnesses said several thousand protesters, mainly youths and state employees, were encouraged by the authorities to take to the streets, while schools allowed pupils out to join in.

Syria says the UN report does not provide enough evidence to indict any officials.

The UN report named senior Syrian security officials and their Lebanese allies as suspects in the murder that transformed Lebanon's political landscape, led regional power Syria to pull out its troops after three decades and has put increasing pressure on the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud to resign.

Lebanon's parliament majority bloc, headed by Hariri's son and political heir Saad, renewed its call for Lahoud to go after the probe said senior generals were suspected in the killing.

"We call on the president to shoulder his moral and political responsibility...and take the step that the Lebanese are hoping and waiting for," the Future Bloc said in statement.

The report said one suspects had called Lahoud shortly before the blast that killed Hariri. The president's office denied the incident and hinted Lahoud would remain in office.

Lebanon has already charged four generals, all pro-Syrians, with murder in connection with the assassination.

The country's central bank has lifted its traditional banking secrecy and froze five accounts under investigation in connection with the assassination.

- REUTERS