(Adds council statement, details, paragraphs 4, 8, 10-12) By Irwin Arieff UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Hours after the killing of one anti-Syrian Lebanese politician, the U.N. Security Council approved plans for a special international court to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of another -- former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The action by the 15-nation council, in the form of a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, enables the plans to be submitted to Lebanon's government for formal approval. Council approval followed Tuesday's murder of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, a vocal Lebanese critic of Syria, and comes within days of an appeal by the pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies to prepare for street protests to try to topple the government of anti-Syrian Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. A separate council statement "unequivocally condemned" Gemayel's murder and "any attempt to destabilize Lebanon through political assassination or other terrorist acts." Gemayel, shot in his car by gunmen near Beirut, was among the Lebanese Cabinet members to have voted last week to tentatively approve the U.N. plan for the new court. The Cabinet voted to endorse the tribunal plan despite the resignation of six opposition ministers. The resignations threw the Siniora government into crisis and prompted a protest from Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, who called the Cabinet action illegitimate. After Gemayel's murder, the death or resignation of two more Cabinet ministers would bring down Siniora's government. 'IN CONFORMITY WITH CONSTITUTION' With the Lebanese government divided into pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian camps, the council letter invited Annan "to proceed, together with the government of Lebanon, in conformity with the constitution of Lebanon, with the final steps for the conclusion of the agreement." The reference to the constitution was meant to ensure that President Lahoud, who has criticized the tribunal plans, had his say in the process along with the parliament, said Qatar's U.N. ambassador, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser. To try to rush the plans through a deeply divided Lebanon, without the whole government's support, could jeopardize the success of the entire project, Al-Nasser said. But France, the main author of the council letter, and the United States insisted that it should be up to the Lebanese government, and not the Security Council, to determine how to formally approve the plan. The letter also called for the Lebanese government to pay for 49 percent of the cost of the new tribunal, with the remaining 51 percent to come in the form of voluntary contributions from U.N. members. The court could be set up only after Annan had funding in hand for its first year of operations, the letter said. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton suggested Gemayel's murder was tied to a string of recent killings of anti-Syrian political figures in Lebanon following the February 2005 slaying of Hariri, who was killed after he spoke out against Syria's domination of Lebanon. "I think the facts need to be developed, but if you look at ... the evidence that links the Hariri assassination to the other political assassinations, I think people can draw their own conclusions," he said. Bolton strongly disagreed when asked by a reporter whether council approval of the tribunal plan might feed instability in Lebanon, as Russia and Qatar had suggested in a recent closed-door council meeting. "How incredibly wrong that would be," he said. "Instability? They are killing people in Lebanon, they are assassinating political leaders." "Not the time to seek justice? There may be those on the Security Council who say it. Let them step forward and say it," Bolton said.
