The US and France have said they are trying to mobilise support for a UN resolution demanding Syria's full cooperation with the investigation into the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. "We will certainly insist on Syrian cooperation," US Ambassador John Bolton said on Monday. "This is true confessions time now for the government of Syria. No more obstruction. No more half measures. We want substantive cooperation and we want it immediately."French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said the council must use "its weight" to discover "the whole truth" after last week's report by UN investigator Detlev Mehlis that found evidence of Syrian involvement in al-Hariri's assassination and a lack of cooperation from Damascus.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he planned to raise the issue of cooperation wth Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, who he said had asked to meet him on Tuesday and was flying to New York. But shortly afterwards, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that Syria's UN Mission had informed the UN al-Sharaa would not be coming. Al-Sharaa was accused in the Mehlis report of lying in a letter to the investigating commission. Mehlis is to brief the UN Security Council on the report at an open meeting on Tuesday.