UNITED NATIONS - An international court to try suspects in the 2005 murder of Lebanese former prime minister Rafiq Hariri will be based in the Netherlands, UN officials said Friday.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had written to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon agreeing to host the special court at the United Nations' request, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

"The secretary-general was pleased to receive on August 15 a letter from Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende informing him that the government of the Netherlands is favorably disposed to hosting the special tribunal for Lebanon," she said.

The tribunal aims to try suspects in the assassination of Hariri, a popular five-time prime minister who was killed along with 22 others in a massive explosion on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.

Ban "will dispatch a delegation to the Netherlands in the coming weeks to discuss practical arrangements required for the establishment and operation of the special tribunal," Montas said.

Dutch foreign ministry spokesman Peter Mollema said the Netherlands "is prepared to host the tribunal. There are still practical matters to be cleared up like funding. We have confidence that this will all be worked out."

The Hague is already dubbed the legal capital of the world, being the seat for several international tribunals such as the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone, which has its headquarters in Freetown, has also moved the trial of Liberian former president Charles Taylor to The Hague.

Although the Hariri court is not likely to be up and running for several months, a UN report last month said more than 200 interviews have already been scheduled in the probe.

UN investigators probing the 2005 murder have identified several people who may have been involved in the slaying.

The tribunal will also have jurisdiction over other attacks against anti-Syrian Lebanese figures carried out between October 2004 and December 2005 if they are linked to the Hariri slaying.

- AFP /ls