Mehlis told Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir that the tactics were similar to those used by Communist states in Eastern Europe during the Cold War era.

Mehlis insisted the inquiry had not been undermined by a witness who recanted his testimony last week. This was in reference to Hossam Taher Hossam.

Hossam said he was bribed to give evidence against Syria.

"I've spent 40 years in Germany and we used to see such things in former eastern European countries", Detlev Mehlis said.

Hossam alleged in an interview on Syrian TV that Hariri's son Saad had met him several months ago and offered him $1.3m to testify against Syrian officials.

Hariri's family has dismissed the statement.

Mehlis, who has been involved in prosecution in Germany for 25 years and has been a senior public prosecutor since 1992, was unmoved.

"I'm used to this kind of propaganda," Mehlis told al-Safir.

He also dismissed Syrian allegations that Hossam was the inquiry's main source implicating Syrian officials.

"There is no main witness. There is a witness who might give information to the commission. What Hossam said in Syria is different to what he told us," he said.

Mehlis team of investigators will question in Vienna Austria, five senior Syrian officials implicated by the inquiry. The interrogations will take place between 5 and 7 December, UN officials have said.

Assef Shawkat, brother-in-law of Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad, will not be in the first batch of Syrian officials, according to reports from Lebanon and Syria.

Mehlis has not ruled out questioning other officials and said Syria would have to grant them access.

"Everyone we ask to question, we will question... Co-operation is either total or there is no co-operation," he said.

"If the investigations result in a request for arrests, the commission would recommend their arrests and the Syrian authorities would have to do it."

The UN Security Council has told Syria to co-operate fully with the investigation or face unspecified action.

On Wednesday, UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari revealed the UN inquiry is unlikely to submit its final report on the scheduled 15 December. Gambari said some witnesses have yet to be interviewed and some evidence yet to be analysed.

"It is very clear he will need an extension and the Lebanese government says it is now ready to approve an extension," he said.

Syria's Propaganda

Syria and its allies in Lebanon, have been maintaining a very aggressive campaign to discredit Mehlis. Syria was trying to frame the UN commission as the guilty party in this probe. Foreign Minister Farouq Al Sharaa even complained that "Mehlis commission was not cooperating." This was indeed a very strange kind of judgment from such an experienced Foreign Minister, since UN Resolution 1636 demanded that Syria should cooperate with the Mehlis commission and not the other way round.

Al Thawra, a Syrian government owned newspaper even questioned the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon, after Syria's withdrawal. The Editor-in-Chief cited as evidence a claim that 400 Israeli agents had recently entered Lebanon. This raises many questions:

1- Did the Syrian intelligence pass on this information to their counterparts in Lebanon? Our sources say no.

2- If the Syrian intelligence services were able to discover 400 Mossad agents were in Lebanon, why didn't they expose them individually so that the Lebanese government will be able to get them?

3- Are the Syrian authorities telling us that during the 29 years of occupation of Lebanon, there were no Mossad agents in Lebanon? As I recall, every murder that took place in Lebanon was always blamed on the Mossad, including the murder of Hariri.

4, 5 & 6... and many other questions could be asked here, but for the sake of better relationship between the Syrian and the Lebanese people we will refrain from asking. Exposing dirty laundry doesn't help in building bridges between nations.

As Mehlis said, this is typical 'Cold War' communist propaganda. I personally recall very clearly the Russian propaganda tactics used against Czechoslovakia after the 'Prague Spring' uprising that was led by president Dubcek in the spring of 1968. Russia later that year invaded Czechoslovakia.

I think Syria should stop this 'Cold War' tactics against Lebanon and Mehlis's UN commission and instead think of the day after the completion of the investigations.

Syria should realize by now 2 facts:

1- Lebanon is independent and Syria should get used to this from here forward, if it desires a long term mutually beneficial relationship with its closest neighbor. Both the Lebanese and Syrian people deserve a better life.

2- Mehlis has to complete his mission of finding the truth, and ensuring that justice is served to all the criminals that were involved in the murder of Hariri, no matter how many extensions this will take. Without Syria's full and unconditional cooperation, the UN commission cannot complete its mission.