The United Nations approved an agreement with the Lebanese government to establish an international tribunal to prosecute the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, the Organization said Tuesday in a statement.

The accord was earlier signed in Beirut by the Director-General of the Ministry of Justice on behalf of the Lebanese government, the statement said.

"It is up to the competent Lebanese authorities to take the steps necessary under the Lebanese Constitution for the approval and ratification of the agreement, to allow it to enter into force," the statement said, adding that "the tribunal could then be made operational with the full support of the United Nations."

The UN Security Council approved in November the creation of the special tribunal that would try those alleged to be responsible for the suicide bomb attack in February, 2005 in Beirut which killed Hariri and 22 others.

(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2007)