WASHINGTON, Oct 22: US President George Bush on Saturday called upon the United Nations to convene a session as soon as possible to deal with a UN report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

But Syria’s ambassador in Washington, Imad Mustapha, dismissed the report as “hearsay, lacking any concrete evidence” and said that it aimed at facilitating US actions against his country.

“The report strongly suggests that the politically-motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement,” Mr Bush told reporters.

The UN investigative report, which Mr Bush called “deeply disturbing”, established a link between high-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in Mr Hariri’s murder on Feb 14 in Beirut.

The report, issued to members of the UN Security Council, did not implicate Syrian President Bashar Assad directly, but said his government did not co-operate with the inquiry.

Mr Bush said he called US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and instructed her to call on the United Nations to convene a session “as quickly as possible to deal with this very serious matter”.

The US president was not specific about what steps the international community should take to make sure Syria was held accountable. He said the US has started talking to UN officials and Arab governments about what steps to take.

Ambassador Mustapha, however, said the accusations were baseless and flagrantly political.

The report presented no substantive evidence that could be used in a court of law, Mr Mustapha told a crowded news conference in Washington attended by the mainstream US media.