But the Assad regime seems reluctant to allow Syrian witnesses or suspects to be interrogated outside Damascus, offering to let the U.N. commission question any Syrian it picks in venues to be chosen by Mehlis in or around the Syrian capital with the U.N. flag hoisted overhead.

The London based Arabic language daily said Mehlis passed the summons to the Assad regime in Damascus through U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York on Wednesday, using the powers given to him by Security Council Resolution 1636 to question any Syrian he wants at the location and modality of his own choice.

In addition to Gen. Shawkat, who is the overall chief of Syria's military intelligence service, Mehlis has summoned to Monteverde (northeast of Beirut) Maj. Gen. Bahjat Suleiman, former chief of Syria's internal intelligence apparatus and Brig. Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh, who headed Syria's military intelligence in Lebanon when Hariri was murdered in Beirut Feb. 14, according to Al Hayat.

Ghazaleh's assistant in south Beirut, Brig. Gen. Jameh Jameh, also was listed on the Mehlis summons along with Abdul Karim Abbas, who served with the Palestinian branch of Syria's general intelligence service, and telecommunications and Internet expert Zafer Youssef, Al Hayat said.

Abbas and Youssef reportedly lived in an apartment in south Beirut the day Hariri was murdered. The Mehlis commission had raided their apartment after receiving tips that it was used for meetings during which the assassination operation was plotted, Al Hayat said.

It noted that Mehlis had personally questioned Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and Generals Ghazaleh and Abbas in the Syrian summer resort of Zabadani in September as other U.N. investigators questioned Generals Shawkat and Suleiman and Brig. Youssef.

Al Hayat quoted Lebanese sources close to the Mehlis investigation as saying that he found contradictions in the testimonies by the Syrian officials, which he will seek to verify in his upcoming interrogation sessions that will be held separately at Monteverde.

Lebanese prosecutor-general Saeed Mirza declined to comment on Al Hayat's report when contacted by The Associated Press. "I don't know. You have to ask Mr. Mehlis," Mirza said on Saturday.

Photo: President Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat(L) and Rustom Ghazaleh (R)

Sources: Naharnet, Al Hayat, AP, Ya Libnan