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Lebanon's unity government looks close to collapsing after the Hezbollah movement and its political allies resigned from the cabinet over arguments stemming from a UN probe into the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in 2005.

There has been growing political tension in Lebanon, amid signs that Hezbollah members could be indicted by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).

Ten ministers tendered their resignations on Wednesday after reports that al-Hariri's son Saad, the current prime minister, had refused their call to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss the investigation by the STL.

There were unconfirmed reports that Adnan Sayyed Hussein, another minister of state, was also set to step down from the 30-member cabinet.

The request to convene the meeting came on Tuesday after Syria and Saudi Arabia, who have for months been attempting to act as mediators in Lebanon's political crisis, announced their efforts had failed.

The resignations, which were announced by Jubran Bassil, the energy minister, came as al-Hariri was in Washington meeting Barack Obama, the US president.

Hezbollah, which has denied any role in the assassination, has denounced the tribunal as an "Israeli project'' and urged al-Hariri to reject any findings by the court, which has not yet announced its decisions.

But the prime minister has refused to break co-operation with the tribunal.

"Saad Hariri was on the brink of making a major concession as concerns the tribunal but occult forces prevented him from doing so," Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, told the AFP news agency without elaborating.

The standoff between al-Hariri's camp and Hezbollah over the UN tribunal has paralysed the government for months and sparked concerns of sectarian violence similar to the one that brought the country close to civil war in May 2008.