UNITED NATIONS, July 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations has asked the Netherlands to host a special court to try the suspected killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Monday.

Hariri and 22 others died in February 2005 in a Beirut car bomb blast that interim U.N. findings have linked to Syrian and Lebanese security officials. Syria has denied involvement but the outcry forced it to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

The U.N. and the Lebanese government agreed last year that a special tribunal based outside Lebanon would hear the case.

The world body does not normally make public such requests unless it is confident they will be accepted.

Deputy U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had sent a letter to the Dutch government, asking that the tribunal be established in the Netherlands. The Hague already hosts the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court and other global tribunals.

At the request of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the U.N. Security Council voted to set up the special tribunal on June 10, despite opposition from anti-government parliamentarians.

U.N. officials have said they expect it to take up to a year to get the court functioning after a U.N.-established commission completes its investigation.

AlertNet news is provided by