By Warren Hoge The New York Times,  The United Nations Security Council struggled over a resolution extending the term of the UN investigation into the assassination of the former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, and expanding its scope to include other recent politically motivated killings in Lebanon.Drafted by France, co-sponsored by Britain and the United States and scheduled for a vote Thursday, the resolution gives the inquiry another six months, to June 15, and posits the possibility of further extension if requested by Lebanon.

It also expresses "deep concern" at evidence of Syrian actions to hinder the investigation and demands that Damascus cooperate "unambiguously and immediately" with requests for assistance.While there was no dispute over the initial six-month stretch, negotiators worked Wednesday to overcome objections to the proposal to broaden the commission’s mandate to include investigations into a series of attacks on journalists and politicians in Lebanon that began in October 2004. The final draft said that the UN commission should give the Lebanese authorities "technical assistance" in connection with those crimes and that Secretary General Kofi Annan should present recommendations on what other steps might be taken.
 The final draft said that the UN commission should give the Lebanese authorities "technical assistance" in connection with those crimes and that Secretary General Kofi Annan should present recommendations on what other steps might be taken.

Hariri, who was opposed to Syria’s control of his country’s politics, was killed with 22 others when a bomb exploded as his car was passing along a Beirut seaside street.

On Monday, Detlev Mehlis, who is leading the UN investigation, delivered a 25-page report to the Security Council. It said that fresh evidence bolstered Mehlis’s earlier judgment that top-ranking officials of the Syrian intelligence services, in collusion with their Lebanese counterparts, were behind Hariri’s killing and that Syria was trying to stall the investigation.

The resolution comes in response to a formal request from Lebanon’s current prime minister, Fouad Siniora. After the car bomb assassination in Beirut on Monday of a prominent journalist, Siniora added the request that the inquiry be broadened to include the new victims of political terror.

He also asked the Security Council to set up an independent tribunal to judge the Hariri killing, but the resolution includes only a request that Annan "help the Lebanese government identify the nature and scope of the international assistance needed in this regard."