UN chief prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Daniel Bellemare met Hezbollah officials in Beirut before heading to the Hague for launching the tribunal, local As-Safier daily reported Tuesday.

The STL was launched Sunday in Hague to try suspects in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a car bomb along with 22 others on Feb. 14, 2005 in Beirut.

Sources from the UN investigation committee were quoted describing the meeting between Bellemare and the Shiite armed group Hezbollah, as "fruitful and very positive," the daily said.

The sources ruled out that Hezbollah members were arrested by the Dutch intelligence service for taking pictures of the STL headquarters.

The French daily Le Monde reported last week that Hezbollah elements were caught taking photos of the STL building in Hague.

Hezbollah, who is the strongest Syrian ally in Lebanon, has been denying any involvement in the assassination of Hariri, but reports released by former head of the international investigation committee Detlev Mehlis said that the four detained Lebanese security officials met in an apartment in Hezbollah stronghold of the southern suburbs of Beirut where they planned the assassination operation.

No proof was released to whether this information was true, but Syrian witness Mohammed Zuheir Saddiq who gave this information to the investigation committee is currently on the run.

The four detained former Lebanese security officials are chief of Presidential guards Musstafa Hamdan, chief of the internal security forces Ali Hajj, chief of the general security Jamil Sayyed and chief of the army intelligence service Rymond Azzar.

Lebanese examining magistrate turned down Friday a request to release the four detained generals, who would probably be transferred to the Hague as suspects.

Source: Xinhua