Hariri, Rafik al- (1944-2005)

Lebanese entrepreneur and politician, prime minister 1992-98 and 2000-04. He was active in pushing ahead with reconstruction of the country's shattered infrastructure and in improving education and international links, using his strong personal connections with Saudi Arabia and Syria. He was replaced as prime minister in December 1998 by Salim al-Hoss, but regained the position in 2000, and helped stimulate a revival in Lebanon's tourist industry. He resigned in 2004 in protest at pro-Syrian government factions seeking to extend the term of President Emile Lahoud, and was assassinated in a car bomb in Beirut in 2005.

Born in Sidon, after studying in university in Beirut, Hariri became a successful, multi-millionaire industrialist, with large interests in construction and banking. A Muslim, from the late 1970s he used his wealth to set up, in Sidon, the Islamic Establishment for Culture and Education, the Kfarfalous Educational and Medical Center, and the Hariri Foundation, the latter providing educational scholarships. He also became involved in efforts to negotiate an end to the Lebanese civil war of 1975-89, helping to frame the Ta'if Agreement that eventually ended the war. A Sunni Muslim political moderate, he became prime minister - a position reserved in Lebanon for the Sunni Muslim community - in October 1992, after a general election.