DAMASCUS, Jan. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- A Syrian general accused of being involved in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said on Tuesday he is ready to resign, the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television reported.

   "If the leadership asks me to die as a martyr, I am ready ... and if they ask me to resign, I am also ready," said Brigadier General Rustom Ghazali, former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon.

   Ghazali is reportedly one of five officials that a UN investigation commission questioned as suspects at UN offices in Vienna last month.

   Two interim reports submitted by outgoing chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis in October and December accused Syrian and Lebanese officials of being involved in the killing of Hariri.

   In the first report, Ghazali was named as having had a conversation with an unnamed Lebanese official about eliminating Hariri several months before he was killed.

   Meanwhile, Ghazali denied accusations of corruption as "baseless and unjust campaign against Syria."

   Last week, former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam disclosed to the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television that Ghazali took 35 million US dollars from Lebanon's Al-Madina Bank which collapsed two years ago.

   "All of my relatives and I are ready to disclose our financial conditions, and if they find any Syrian dime in any country, let them disclose it," said Ghazali.

   "I am under investigation by the international commission, and I have submitted everything that I have concerning the financial situation to the commission," he said.

   Khaddam, who lives in Paris, also accused in the interview that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had threatened Hariri just months before he was assassinated in a car bomb blast on Feb. 14.

   Khaddam said Syrian intelligence services could not have carried out such an operation without Assad being informed.

   His remarks were a rare attack on the Syrian government by a former official, while a UN probe into Hariri's killing has implicated Syria in Hariri's murder.

   The UN Security Council demanded full Syrian cooperation with the international probe.

   Syria has denied any role in the killing and dismissed the UN charge of slow cooperation as "inaccurate." Enditem