DAMASCUS, March 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faiser Mekdad said that a new UN report on the probe into Lebanese ex-premier Rafik Hariri is "objective and very professional", the official al-Thawra newspaper reported on Wednesday.

    Mekdad told the paper in a telephone interview that Syria carried out cooperation with the UN investigation commission through visits by chief investigator Serge Brammertz to Damascus and Syrian officials to Beirut.

    Meanwhile, Mekdad criticized former chief investigator Detlev Mehlis for providing chances for media campaign on pre-judgment before the completion of the investigation.

    Brammertz's report did not lead to such circumstances, he said. A UN report released Tuesday said Syria has complied with almost all requests for assistance from the UN commission. "The Syrian government has, in particular in the last three months, formally complied with nearly all of the Commission's previous requests for assistance," said the report.

    This is the first report by Brammertz who succeeded Mehlis in January to continue the investigation.

    Mehlis, during his tenure since last June, had presented two reports to the UN Security Council which accused senior Syrian officials of involvement in Hariri's killing and the Syrian authorities not fully cooperating in the probe.

    The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1636 last October, demanding full Syrian cooperation with the probe or it would face unspecified further action.

    Syria has been under intense international pressure following the killing of Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005 in a massive truck bomb attack, of which many Lebanese believed Damascus was behind the scene.

    Syria denied any role in the killing, but was forced to withdraw its troops from its smaller neighbor in late April 2005, ending 29 years of military presence there. Enditem