Damascus, Syria ? Syrian President Bashar Assad denied threatening Lebanon’s former prime minister but suggested in an interview published Saturday that he would not allow U.N. investigators to interview him about Rafik Hariri’s killing.

Syria’s former Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who defected to France, told The Associated Press on Friday that Assad had threatened Hariri during their last meeting.

“I don’t know what others meant by threatening,” Assad was quoted as saying in the Egyptian opposition weekly al-Osboa. “This never happened and the aim was to connect the threat with the assassination. The game is clear. Nobody attended the last meeting between me and Hariri, therefore, how can they make these allegations?”

Assad and Hariri met in August 2004 to discuss extending the term of pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, which Hariri opposed. Hariri died in a truck bombing in February 2005.

A report by a U.N. team investigating Hariri’s assassination and several anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians have suggested a Syrian role in the killing.