1. Various exteriors of Special Tribunal for Lebanon building

2. Various works in courtyard of the building

3. Wide of future courtroom, venue of Tuesday's press conference

4. Mid of sign reading "Special Tribunal for Lebanon"

5. Wide of news conference

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Robin Vincent, Registrar at Special Tribunal for Lebanon:

"As this tribunal has from the taking up of the office by the prosecutor sixty days, two months to apply to the Lebanon authorities, and I just paraphrase here; for the transfer of people and paper. By paper I mean obviously evidence, files, etc, and by people I mean anyone who either the prosecutor asked for, if they are in custody. And that is certainly a matter for them. It is a matter for the prosecutor, it is a matter for the pre-trial judge and a judicial process."

7. Cutaway of reporters

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Robin Vincent, Registrar at Special Tribunal for Lebanon:

"Those detained will be detained in Scheveningen which is, of course, the Dutch penitentiary but with the international corps, as it were. They will be in that area and they will, of course, be with those who are being tried or one person being tried for Sierra Leone, those with the Yugoslav tribunal and those now with the ICC (International Criminal Court). However, let's make it very clear, is that a distinct wing of cells has been acquired by us, is operational, is staffed and is ready in terms of receiving anyone that we get."

9. Various interior of future courtroom, currently a gym hall

The registrar of a tribunal that will prosecute suspected assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said on Tuesday the court's prosecutor will likely request the transfer of suspects from Beirut in coming weeks.

Robin Vincent said the prosecutor has 60 days from the date the court formally opens on Sunday to request suspects be turned over for trial.

The court's Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has recently indicated he plans to request the transfer of suspects, Vincent said. He gave no further details of suspects that could be sent to the Netherlands.

Nobody has been charged in the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others, although four pro-Syria Lebanese generals have been under arrest for more than three years for alleged involvement.

Hariri, a billionaire businessman, had close ties with Western leaders and was credited with helping rebuild Lebanon's capital after the 1975-1990 civil war and trying to limit neighbouring Syria's influence over Lebanon.

The tribunal, based in a former Dutch intelligence agency in a village just outside The Hague, formally opens for business on Sunday even though no judges have yet been named and it still has no rule book for prosecutors and judges.

The U.N. Security Council unilaterally set up the tribunal in 2007 after the speaker of the Lebanese parliament refused to call a session to ratify the statutes to create it.

It is housed in the Netherlands, which already is home to the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and International Criminal Court, primarily for security reasons.

Bellemare is expected to make a statement on the progress of his investigation at Sunday's opening ceremony.

Vincent, who is the tribunal's administrative chief, said he is ready to detain suspects in a Dutch jail that already holds Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and former Liberian President Charles Taylor among other international war crimes suspects.

"A distinct wing of cells has been acquired by us, is operational and is ready in terms of receiving anyone we get," Vincent told reporters who gathered in a gymnasium that will be transformed into the tribunal's courtroom by year's end.

The tribunal will use Lebanese law applied by a mixture of Lebanese and international judges.

Unlike courts in Lebanon it does not have the death sentence. Its heaviest punishment is life imprisonment.