The United Nations has asked the Netherlands to host a special court to try the suspected killers of Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, a UN spokeswoman said.

Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, received a request from Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, but has yet to confirm his country will host the tribunal.

Marie Okabe, deputy UN spokeswoman, said Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, sent a letter to the Dutch government, asking that the tribunal be established in the Netherlands.

The Hague already hosts the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and other global tribunals.

Okabe said in a statement: "In his letter, the secretary-general stresses the fact that the Netherlands already hosts several courts and tribunals ... and that the experience gained could be of great value for the special tribunal for Lebanon."

Balkenende said his government would deal with the request "in a constructive manner," his spokesman Gerard van der Wulp said.

Van der Wulp said further discussions were expected "fairly quickly".

Progress

Omar Nachabe, a Lebanese journalist, told Al Jazeera: "This is another indication that the process is moving forward and gives a lot of hope to many Lebanese."

"There is still a lot of scepticism ... There is a big risk that any decision made by the court will be a political one."

At the request of Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, the UN Security Council voted to set up the special tribunal on June 10, despite opposition from anti-government parliamentarians.

UN officials have said it will take at last a year to get the court functioning after a UN-established commission completes its investigation.

UN investigators probing the killing have identified a number of people who may have been involved or known about it in July.

Serge Brammertz, the Belgian prosecutor, said that investigators believed Hariri, a prominent critic of Syria, may have been killed because of his support for a 2004 UN resolution demanding that Syrian and other foreign troops withdraw from Lebanon.

Brammertz did not name any suspects in his report to the Security Council, but expressed concern that deteriorating security in Lebanon could hamper the inquiry.

Brammertz is also investigating 17 other political murders or attempted murders in Lebanon.

PHOTO CAPTION

A huge billboard carrying the picture of slain premier Rafiq Hariri stands in downtown Beirut, February 2006. (AFP)

Al-Jazeera