The head of the UN's investigation into the assassination of Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is heading to Damascus to meet the Syrian president. Serge Brammertz will meet Syrian leader Bashar Assad on Sunday.
UN progress reports have implicated Syria in the murder of Mr Hariri but Damascus denies any involvement.
It will be the first time the Syrian President Bashar Assad has met UN investigators since the probe started last summer.
Syria criticised
The UN team formally made a request to see Mr Assad in January after the defection of Syria's former vice-president, Abdel Halim Khaddam, who has alleged that President Assad was involved in the murder of Rafik Hariri.
In the first two progress reports of the investigation, Syria was criticised for impeding the work of the UN team.
Investigators also found that the murder of Lebanon's former prime minister could not have taken place without the knowledge and help of top Syrian officials.
But the latest progress report of the UN team issued in mid-March said Syrian cooperation with the probe had improved.
A few days later President Assad announced he would soon meet the UN commission.
But while the investigators have been seeking to interview Mr Assad in connection with the murder of Mr Hariri, Syrian sources quoted in the Lebanese media have said that the Syrian president would see the chief UN investigator, Serge Brammertz, as part of a scheduled reception of visitors.
It's expected that Mr Brammertz will also talk to Vice-President Farouk Sharaa, who was foreign minister at the time of the murder and was accused by the investigators of giving them false information.
