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A U.N. mission investigating ex-Premier Hariri’s assassination in Beirut may conclude that his motorcade was devastated Feb. 14 by a massive underground bomb rather than an above the ground terrorist bombing operation, Hariri’s Al Mustaqbal newspaper said on Tuesday.

“The mission of inquiry under Berlin Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis may possibly reverse to the underground bombing theory,” the newspaper quoted unidentified diplomatic sources as saying, noting that a previous U.N. fact-finding mission floated the over-ground bombing concept, but inconclusively.

Hariri’s family originally subscribed to the theory that the assassination resulted from a one-ton bomb planted in underground sewage tunnels and triggered off manually, which explained why the sophisticated security system of Hariri’s limousines did not detect the bomb.

Al Mustaqbal said Tuesday that a team of German explosives experts arrived in Beirut on Sunday. The experts are examining the scene of the crime to make a final decision on how the assassination was carried out, the paper added.

Hariri’s family has reportedly passed to Detlev evidence lifted from Bassel Fleihan’s body burns in a Paris hospital that established the kind of explosives used in the bombing, earlier local media reports said. (Photo shows German experts on assassination scene)

Beirut, Updated 09 Jun 05, 11:09