The UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon set up to try the killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Friday set a provisional January start date for the trial.

The UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon set up to try the killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Friday set a provisional January start date for the trial.

"The pre-trial Judge at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon today issued an order setting 13 January 2014 as a new tentative date for the start of the trial," the court said in a statement.

"The court provisions require the Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen to determine the tentative trial which could change depending on any judicial developments," the statement read.

"Second phase of the pre-trial measurements requires to refer the case to the First Chamber that will set up the deadline for the trial," it added.

The trial was due to start last March, but that was postponed after defense lawyers said that prosecutors had not yet given them all the relevant information to prepare their cases.

Set up by a UN resolution in 2007 at Lebanon's request to probe Hariri's death, the STL is the first court of its kind to deal with terrorism as a distinct crime.