Syria's Assad in Saudi, seen holding Lebanon talks

JEDDAH, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to unscheduled talks with Saudi Arabia's king on Sunday, a day after diplomats said Assad had rejected a U.N. request to interview him about a former Lebanese prime minister's murder.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said during a surprise visit to Damascus earlier on Sunday that the summit between Assad and King Abdullah would take place in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and there would be a statement afterwards.

The official Saudi news agency SPA later said Abdullah received Assad at a banquet in Jeddah but gave no more details. Saudi media said the talks in Damascus covered Lebanon.

Diplomats said on Saturday that Assad had rejected a U.N. request to interview him as part of an inquiry into the Feb. 14 Beirut murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was also a Saudi citizen and close to the Saudi royals.

Syria has strongly denied any role in the truck bombing which killed Hariri.

But a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution in October threatens to punish Damascus with unspecified action if it fails to cooperate fully with the inquiry into Hariri's death.

Former Syrian vice president Abdel-Halim Khaddam told Arab media late last month that Assad had threatened Hariri a few months before he was killed.

Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, said in November it had brokered a deal between Damascus and the United Nations to allow the questioning of five Syrian officials in Vienna.

Adel al-Harbi, political editor at the leading Saudi daily al-Riyadh, said Saudi Arabia wanted to find a way for Assad to meet the U.N. team without harming Syria's sovereignty, and to avoid Syria being isolated internationally.

"The anxiety here and in Arab countries is that Syria doesn't cooperate. Saudi Arabia is trying to get them to cooperate with the investigation to find the truth," he said.

"An interview which respects Syrian sovereignty does no harm in itself, as long as it is an interview and not questioning," he added.

Diplomats have said that Syria had agreed to allow the investigators to meet Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara.

"It seems that there are Saudi and Egyptian efforts to find a comprehensive regional and international agreement regarding the U.N. request to meet President Assad," said Syrian political analyst Imad Shuaibi.

"The U.N. request violated (international) protocol by naming the witnesses whom the commission wanted to meet."

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak discussed the stand-off with King Abdullah in a stopover in Saudi Arabia last week.

Assad, in an interview with an Egyptian paper, said this week that as president he had international immunity, indicating that U.N. investigators could not insist on interviewing him.