Lebanon received from the United Nations on Friday a draft document outlining the framework of a tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, Lebanese officials said.

The move indicated that major powers on the U.N. Security Council had bridged differences that had delayed an agreement on the workings and structure of the court, the officials said.

They did not reveal details of the draft but said some Russian objections to an earlier draft had been taken on board.

One official source said the tribunal, to be made up of Lebanese and foreign judges, would have no power to try or question heads of states as the killing would not be defined as a "crime against humanity" or a "terrorist attack".

Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005, in a suicide truck bombing that killed 22 other people. The killing, which sparked large anti-Syrian protests that forced Syria to end three decades of military presence in Lebanon, is under investigation by a U.N. commission led by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz.

The U.N. probe has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian security officials. Syria has denied any role.

The personal representative of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Geir Pederson, handed a copy of the draft to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in Beirut.

Pederson later visited Hariri's son Saad, parliamentary majority leader, with another U.N. envoy. He told reporters on his way in to the meeting that he would discuss with Hariri U.N. Resolution 1701 on a truce between Hezbollah and Israel.

Reuters had reported earlier that Pederson gave Hariri a copy of the draft. Asked whether he would give Hariri a copy, Pederson said he had given the copy only to the Lebanese government.