Rizk was speaking after a meeting with the UN under secretary general for legal affairs, Nicolas Michel, who was in Beirut to present an outline of the plan, first suggested by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in March.

“We received the proposal, and it needs clarification before the final version” is adopted, the minister told journalists, without elaborating.

Rizk said the idea was for the tribunal to be composed of two chambers.

The first, a trial court, would have a panel of three judges, one of which would be Lebanese. The second, an appeals court, would have five judges, including two Lebanese.

He also said there was a “national consensus” over forming the tribunal.

“This is a working visit. (Michel) will inform us about the procedures to be followed, then I will present a proposal to the governnment and a decision will be taken. That will be submitted to parliament for a vote.”

Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005 in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront that also killed 22 others.

Last June, the 15-member UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution extending for a year the mandate of an investigative panel headed by Serge Brammertz.

The Belgian prosecutor took over as head of the probe in January from his German predecessor, Detlev Mehlis.

Two reports under Mehlis had suggested top-level Syrian involvement in the assassination plot, something Damascus strenuously denies.