BRUSSELS, March 25 (Xinhua) -- An Italian judge has been appointed president of the tribunal that will investigate the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, according to media reports.

Judge Antonio Cassese will lead the Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was established in line with a 2007 U.N. Security Council resolution and formally launched March 1.

The tribunal is mandated to try those responsible for the Feb. 14, 2005, bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.

It also has authority to prosecute the perpetrators of other assassinations committed in Lebanon between Oct. 1, 2004, and Dec.12, 2005.

Cassese served as the first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia between 1993 and 1997. From late 2004 to early 2005, he chaired the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur set up by the U.N. to investigate potential human rights violations in the Sudan's western region of Darfur.

The court is the first U.N.-sponsored tribunal to try terrorist crimes. It will apply Lebanese law instead of international law, and its 11 judges are from Lebanon and a number of other countries.

No one has been charged yet in the Hariri assassination but four pro-Syria Lebanese generals have been held in Beirut for more than three years in connection with the murder.