Lebanese officials expect President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, a staunch ally the Lebanese group Hezbollah which dominates southern Lebanon and which the United States views as a terrorist organization, to visit Beirut on Oct. 13-14. Ahmadinejad’s visit is his first to Lebanon as president and comes at a time of greater tension in Beirut in the run up to indictments expected to be issued against Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination of statesman Rafik Hariri.

Lebanon’s largest parliamentary bloc, the Western-backed “March 14” coalition, voiced concern last week about the visit, saying Ahmedinejad regards Lebanon as “an Iranian base on the Mediterranean.” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the issue of Ahmadinejad’s proposed visit when she met Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in New York last month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“We expressed our concern about it given that Iran, through its association with groups like Hezbollah, is actively undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters at his daily briefing. “But ... we respect that these are judgments for (the) Lebanese government to make,” he added.

Lebanese political sources have said they expect Ahmadinejad to meet Hezbollah politicians and visit Bint Jbeil, a bastion of Hezbollah and a border village that was heavily bombed during the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006.

Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem described as "purely procedural" controversial arrest warrants Damascus has issued against 33 people, among them Lebanese officials. "It's purely procedural," he told a news conference during a visit by his Romanian counterpart Teodor Baconschi.

Syria has ordered the arrest of 33 people over false testimony given in the UN-backed probe into the assassination of Hariri.

The top investigating judge in Damascus had issued arrest warrants against "judges, security officers, politicians, journalists and other Lebanese, Arab and foreign individuals," Jamil Sayyed, the former head of Lebanon's security services said in a statement over the weekend.

The warrants came with tensions high in Lebanon over unconfirmed reports the UN tribunal is set to charge members of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, in connection with Hariri's murder.

When asked about the tribunal, Muallem insisted that it is "purely a Lebanese affair." Damascus has consistently denied any involvement in the assassination, and last month, in a stunning about-turn, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he had been wrong to point the finger at Syria.

"We are convinced that a condemnation of the prosecutor of this court against Hezbollah will be a factor of disturbance in Lebanon," The Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying.