“All indications are that Mehlis will implicate some Syrian officials in the case,” one Lebanese political source said. At least two other sources, from different sides of Lebanon’s political spectrum, and a diplomat concurred. Such a move would bring Syria under international pressure to give up indicted suspects for trial and intensify calls for pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud to resign, they added.

It could also provoke further instability in Lebanon, where bombings and assassinations since Hariri’s February 14 killing have created the worst security crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Many Lebanese already blame Syria and some of its Lebanese allies for the bomb that killed Hariri and 20 others in Beirut.

Mehlis took a team of  investigators to Damascus last week to question at least seven Syrian officials, political sources said. The questioning lasted four days and the sources say those interviewed included senior intelligence officers in Lebanon at the time of Hariri’s killing and their superiors in Damascus.

After Mehlis’s trip, Syrian officials said their country was cooperating and that the investigator had no Syrian suspects.

Mehlis, due to make his findings public by October 24, has revealed few details of his investigation. A UN official in Beirut declined to comment on its likely outcome.

Lebanon has already arrested four pro-Syrian generals, on Mehlis’s recommendation, and charged them with murder.

“The work of the investigators is almost done. They have broken the case. Mehlis will go all the way and charge Syrian officials,” another Lebanese political source said.