Beirut - UN under-secretary-general for legal affairs Nicolas Michel has handed the Lebanese Government the 'final' UN text on the legal basis for an international court to try suspects in the Rafik Hariri case, Lebanese judicial sources said Monday.

According to the sources, the documents were handed over to the government on Saturday.

The text would then have to be approved by the cabinet before being adopted by parliament, the sources said.

Sources close to the family of the slain former premier Hariri said the new text was 'the last one' and that it had been revised to omit a reference to 'crimes against humanity,' amid objections from some Lebanese factions.

Rafiq Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005 in a massive bomb blast on Beirut's seafront that also killed 20 others.

Hariri's followers have accused Syria and its allies in Lebanon of being behind the assassination.

A UN probe into the killing, which is still continuing, has far implicated senior Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials.

The UN investigative team has questioned a number of Syrian officials in connection with the affair but Damascus has persistently denied any involvement.

According to the judicial sources, the international court will sit outside Lebanon for security reasons.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur