Syria has stepped up its muzzling of the Internet, blocking access to websites critical of the Assad regime, including some run by the more moderate Arab dailies, a human-rights group said yesterday.

The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said that sites blocked by firewalls within Syria include the Saudi-owned, pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat (The Middle East), and the Beirut newspaper Al Mustaqbal (The Future), owned by the family of the murdered former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Popular e-mail provider Hotmail has also been blocked, the group said.

The crackdown comes ahead of possible conflict feared in Lebanon following next week’s U.N. Security Council decision on whether to station international monitors on the Lebanese-Syrian border to crack down on the transport of arms by Syria and Iran to Hizbullah, and a U.N. discussion on the inquiry into the assassination of Hariri.