The cabinet has already given its approval to the prime minister to issue such a letter.

The daily An Nahar said Saniora will send the letter within the coming few hours to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requesting to set up the court after several attempts to ratify the draft law for the tribunal in parliament have failed.

Al-Mustaqbal also quoted Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh as saying the memorandum, which is to be signed by Siniora within the next few hours, calls on the U.N. to move on the international court.

Hamadeh uncovered that the world body would take measures to ratify the tribunal starting mid next week.

As Safir, citing Western diplomatic sources in New York, said the U.N. was likely to approve creation of the court within the next 48 hours.

The sources said the Security Council was expected to meet on Tuesday and thereafter "unanimously" vote to approve the draft law to create the tribunal.

As Safir said the obvious question now was what the next phase would be like following set up of the tribunal in the wake of MP Saad Hariri's announcement of a fresh political initiative to enter into dialogue with the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Hemadeh blames Berri and Assad for adopting tribunal under chapter 7

Minister of Telecommunications, Marwan hamadeh ( L) blamed Speaker Nabih Berri and Syrian president Bashar el Assad attacks for failure to ratify the tribunal by the parliament .

He said if Berri convened the parliament , the tribunal would have been ratified as demanded by the UN , but Berri refused to do so under orders from Syria. This is why we were left with no other choice but to go ahead with the tribunal under Chapter 7.

Hemaded said Assad's attacks against the tribunal are solid proof of the involvement of the Syrian regime in the murder of Hariri. Assad in a recent phone discussion with UN secretary General, he threatened to set the whole region on fire starting from the Caspian sea to the Mediterranean sea, if the tribunal is adopted by the UN.

Update: Siniora 's letter sent to UN

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Monday sent a strongly worded request to the U.N. urging the world body to take a "binding decision" to set up an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri and the other related crimes.

Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told reporters at the end of a cabinet meeting Monday evening that Siniora sent the letter earlier in the day urging U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to establish the court after several attempts to ratify the draft law in the parliament have failed.

"In a letter sent this morning, the prime minister made a strong request to Ban Ki-moon to ask the Security Council to take a binding decision," Aridi said.

Aridi read out Siniora's letter which said: "The Lebanese government believes that the time has come for the Security Council to help make the special tribunal for Lebanon a reality.

"We therefore ask as a matter of urgency to put before the Security Council our request that the special tribunal be put into effect.

"A binding decision regarding the tribunal on the part of the Security Council will be fully consistent with the importance the U.N. has attached to this matter from the outset, when the investigation commission was established."

He was referring to a U.N. commission of inquiry, now headed by Serge Brammertz of Belgium, which has implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the killing of Hariri.

The tribunal, the heart of Lebanon's worst political crisis, has been a major issue that has divided Lebanon into pro and anti-Syrian camps.

All six pro-Syrian government ministers quit last November, the night before the tribunal was to be discussed by the cabinet.

Both House Speaker Nabih Berri and pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud have since refused to recognize the democratically elected government. Initially Berri ( during a trip to Iran) recognized the government but later changed his mind under pressure from Iran and Syria.

The Hezbollah-led opposition has made plain it strongly opposes any move by the Security Council to impose the international court under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, so Siniora's action is likely to inflame the political crisis which has seen opposition supporters camped outside his offices for months.

"We say no to the establishment of a tribunal under Chapter Seven," Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, a key Syrian ally, said earlier this month.

Siniora's government accuses the opposition of deliberately blocking ratification of the tribunal blueprint, which has already been endorsed by the Security Council, at the behest of their Syrian masters.

Damascus has made clear that it will not allow any Syrians to be tried by the international Tribunal

Sources: Naharnet, Ya Libnan