UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Annan’s envoy, Terje Roed Larsen, began to prepare yesterday for one of the most difficult tasks facing Lebanon: taking weapons out of the hands of local militias, such as terrorist organizations in heavily armed Palestinian Arab camps and the Shiite organization Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Lebanon.

Mr. Larsen’s unprecedented public statements on disarming Hezbollah came as the Security Council was awaiting a report from a German investigator, Detlev Mehlis, who is expected tomorrow to release the findings of his probe on last February’s assassination of Lebanon’s top politician, Rafik Hariri.

With wide expectations that the Mehlis report would highlight Syria’s role in the assassination, which would add to the international pressure on the Baathist regime of President Assad, Secretary of State Rice yesterday had a “private” breakfast meeting with Mr. Annan, according to spokesmen at the State Department and United Nations.

“It’s going to be a busy calendar in the coming week or so with regard to Syria,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday, indicating that America expects an increased pressure on Damascus in the Security Council, which will discuss the Mehlis report next week, and also Mr. Larsen’s report by the end of the month. “I think collectively, we will take a look at where we are with regard to Syria’s behavior,” Mr. McCormack said.

Mr. Mehlis’s report will be “technical,” Mr. McCormack said. “You might call it an interim report.” But a U.N. official familiar with the upcoming report told The New York Sun yesterday that the report would not be described as final only out of consideration to Lebanon’s request to extend the mandate of Mr. Mehlis’s stay in the country. But it will be “the comprehensive report” on the assassination and Syria’s role in it, the official, who asked not to be named, said.

Mr. Larsen arranged a Paris meeting Monday between the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, to discuss the disarmament of militants in Lebanese-based Palestinian Arab camps. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said yesterday that the two Arab leaders discussed the weapons in the hands of rejectionist Palestinian Arab groups and also the flow of arms into the camps from across the Syrian border.

Until now, the Security Council has been reluctant to implement the part of its resolution that demanded disarmament of all militias in Lebanon.Yesterday, however, Mr. Larsen indicated in interviews for the Lebanese and French press that the issue would weigh heavily in his report.

The issue of disarmament is expected to have ramifications across the region, and is a problem for Mr. Abbas, who has said he wants to disarm Hamas, while allowing its representatives to participate in a parliamentary election expected in January.

The Lebanese “intend to open a national dialogue” on disarming Hezbollah, said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of Fatah, the dominant party in the Palestinian Authority, in an interview with The New York Sun yesterday. “I don’t know if this is satisfactory in our case.” He added that Hamas will definitely take part in the election.

Mr. Abed Rabbo met yesterday with Mr. Annan, alongside the Israeli dovish opposition leader Yossi Beilin. “An armed militia could take part in any democratic process,” Mr. Beilin said.