Lebanese gov't to approve Hariri tribunal Saturday

BEIRUT, Nov 23 (Reuters) The Lebanese government will meet on Saturday to approve plans for a special international court to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, official sources said today.

The court issue is a major source of tension between the Western-backed government and the pro-Syrian opposition.

Tensions between the two groups have been exacerbated by Tuesday's assassination of cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel.

Early reports from a UN inquiry into Hariri's death implicated Syrian security officials and their Lebanese counterparts.

Syria, which critics have also accused of involvement in Gemayel's killing, denies any role in their deaths.

Lebanon's government says its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the powerful Shi'ite Muslim party Hezbollah, want to weaken it and to scupper the international tribunal.

Six ministers from Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian factions quit the cabinet this month after all-party talks on a new government collapsed. They say the depleted cabinet is a puppet of Washington which lacks legitimacy.

Earlier this month, the depleted government had met to approve the draft UN tribunal and on Tuesday, hours after Gemayel's killing, the UN approved plans for the court in the form of a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

That enables the plans to be submitted to Lebanon's government for formal approval.

Attempting to allay a further deterioration in the country's bubbling political crisis, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora today appealed to the ministers to return to the cabinet.

''I call on my brotherly colleagues, all the ministers who presented their resignations, to come back to the rows of government ... so that we can come back and open all the pages and issues that are of importance to our people and nation,'' he said after a cabinet meeting.

The government, keen to ensure the international tribunal is established, would fall if it lost two more ministers. An anti-Syrian minister whose resignation last February was never accepted returned to government today.

Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa had resigned in February after rioters burned the Danish consulate in Beirut during protests against cartoons lampooning Prophet Mohammad.

Reuters SBA VP0327