UN chief Ban Ki-moon plans to give the panel probing the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto until late March to complete its work, his spokesman said in a statement Thursday. The UN panel, which began its investigation last July 1 and was to have submitted its report Thursday, will now be given until March 31 to do so, the statement said.

"Because of the substantial amount of information collected by the commission in Pakistan and further follow-up work that remains, the commissioners requested additional time to complete their report," spokesman Martin Nesirky said. He added that Ban notified both the Pakistani government and the UN Security Council about the decision. The three-member panel is headed by Chilean ambassador to the UN Heraldo Munoz and includes Indonesian ex-attorney general Marzuki Darusman and Peter Fitzgerald, an Irish former police official.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010