BEIRUT, Feb 20 (AFP) - Lebanon will cooperate with a UN commission of inquiry into the killing of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri to find those responsible and try to ease tensions provoked by the murder, the pro-Syrian speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, said on Sunday.
The decision, taken amid opposition accusations of Syrian involvement and open defiance of the Damascus-backed government, reversed an earlier statement by a minister that Beirut was set to snub the probe.
"President Emile Lahoud received a letter from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on this subject and replied on the basis of cooperation," said Berri.
"There are clarifications (that we will be seeking) but on that basis we're going to cooperate, because it's in the interests of the Lebanese state that the truth will out within the framework of respect for its sovereignty."
Opposition parties in Lebanon have been galvanised by last Monday's killing, in a huge bomb blast, of the five-times former premier, into increasing demands that Syria pull out its 14,000 troops and lift its political grip off its tiny neighbour.
Internationally, France and the United States, which co-sponsored a UN Security Council resolution last September demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon, have been the most vocal in insisting on a UN inquiry.
Damascus has refused to take the blame for Hariri's killing.
"Syria is the main loser ... and (Hariri) was the most pro-Syrian" among Lebanese leaders, the Syrian ambassador in London, Sami al-Khiami, told the BBC on Sunday.
Syria's government daily Tishrin accused Washington and Israel of leading a "campaign of intimidation" against Damascus and its backers in Beirut since Hariri's murder.
Berri told journalists: "Unmasking the circumstances of this crime is our number one priority, not only because it is a national duty but also to calm people's spirits and put a stop to the false accusations being bandied about."
Opposition parties have accused the government and Syria of being behind the bomb blast on the Beirut seafront, which also killed 14 other people.
Lebanon's Interior Minister Suleiman Frangieh, who earlier rejected the idea of an international inquiry commission, said on Sunday on television: "If people want to help us, all right, but this is a sovereign state. Lebanon is capable of leading an inquiry; there is no question of giving up our sovereignty."
A meeting of pro-Syrian Lebanese political leaders on Sunday rejected calls for the government to quit. In a statement read by Berri they said a committee had been formed "charged with making contact with all parties, without exception" to bring about dialogue.
But Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, viewed as the main opposition leader in Lebanon, rejected calls for dialogue and said only talks directly with Damascus could help resolve the crisis caused by Hariri's killing.
A large demonstration called by the opposition for Monday, in defiance of government warnings, is to coincide with a Brussels summit between the US and French presidents.
The mounting war of words has prompted another call for calm from Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Maronite Christians, the community from which much of the longstanding opposition to Syria's influence is drawn.
"This catastrophe ... has stirred emotions. But national issues should not be handled with emotional reactions, but with moderation, planning and dialogue," he said.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announced late Friday that police Deputy Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald had been made available to the United Nations to head the probe into Hariri's killing.
Thousands of people continue to converge each evening on Martyrs' Square where Hariri was buried, to shout "Syria Out" and "Down with the government," despite warnings from the authorities that they will start enforcing a ban on illegal gatherings.
Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad has vowed that the authorities "will not allow any security breaches" after the mourning period which officially ended on Friday. He had also said that the government was poised to boycott the probe decided by the UN Security Council.
The deteriorating situation in Lebanon has apparently convinced Arab League chief Amr Mussa to bring forward a visit to an increasingly isolated Syria which had been planned for Wednesday.
He was expected to travel to Damascus Sunday evening for talks the following day with President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara.

02/20/2005 18:50 GMT - AFP