BEIRUT, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Sultanov said Tuesday that before Lebanon reaches consensus, Russia has reservations on establishing an international tribunal to investigate the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri under Chapter of the UN Charter.

    Sultanov called on the Lebanese to depend on themselves, and not the UN Security Council, to create the court to try suspects in the murder of Hariri and others. Chapter would allow the tribunal to go ahead without Parliament's approval.

    The issue of setting up an international tribunal into the 2005 assassination of Hariri has pitted the Lebanese government against opposition groups, and the conflict between the two sides has turned violent in recent months.

    On April 3, Saad Hariri, son of the murdered Lebanese leader, handed in a memorandum signed by 70 Lebanese parliamentary members to Geir Pedersen, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon.

    Hariri requested the UN Security Council set up an international tribunal to try suspects in the murder of his father without the Lebanese parliament's approval by resorting to the Chapter of the UN Charter.

    Chapter of the UN Charter is invoked to impose Security Council measures in cases of threats to international peace and security or aggression.

    Sultanov, who arrived in Beirut late Monday night, met with resigned Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh on Tuesday morning before heading to Baabda Palace to meet President Emile Lahoud.

    Sultanov later met separately with Prime Minister Fouad Seniora and Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, a key opposition leader, who has refused to call parliament to vote on the tribunal. He is due in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with Syrian officials.

    Rafik Hariri and 22 others were killed in a massive bomb blast in February 2005 in Beirut.

    The United Nations has signed a deal with the government to setup the tribunal, but it must be ratified by the country's divided parliament.