UNITED NATIONS, April 6: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he would send the United Nations’ legal chief if needed to a planned international meeting to try to end the continuing political impasse in Lebanon,

“It was crucial that the country set up a special tribunal as soon as possible to try the suspected killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Haririi”, Mr Ban said.

“I hope through these meetings the Lebanese Government and people will be able to take the necessary constitutional procedures” to ratify the agreement creating the proposed tribunal, he told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York after briefing the Security Council on his recent trip to the Middle East.

Mr Ban said Lebanon's parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, who has invited Saudi Arabia to organise some consultation meetings in a bid to resolve the deadlock, had also asked if UN Legal Counsel Nicolas Michel could attend. In February, on behalf of the UN, Mr Michel signed the agreement with Lebanon to set up the tribunal, but it must still be ratified by the Lebanese Parliament to enter into force.

“If it is agreeable to the parties, I am willing to dispatch Mr Nicolas Michel to that conference,” the Secretary-General said, stressing that it was “crucially important” to establish the tribunal at an early date.

On Wednesday Mr Ban received a letter from 70 Lebanese lawmakers asking him to act under the UN Charter to set up a special tribunal given the continuing deadlock in the Lebanese Parliament. Many of the lawmakers have been calling for a parliamentary session to be convened so that they can vote on the proposed tribunal.

Asked whether the UN might go ahead and formally establish the tribunal itself, Mr Ban said he preferred to see first how the situation unfolds given the potential meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia.