'Saudi officials funded Sept 11 attacks'

Citing people who read a 28-page deleted section of the nearly 900-page Congressional report on the hijackings released on Thursday by a joint House and Senate Intelligence Committee, the Times said the section centres almost entirely on Saudi Arabia.

The report has been denounced by the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, and some US officials questioned whether the committee had made a conclusive case linking Saudi funding to the hijackings, according to the Times.

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But the Bush administration's refusal to allow the chapter's disclosure has stirred resentment in Congress, where some lawmakers have said the administration's desire to protect the ruling Saudi family has prevented the public from learning crucial facts about the attacks, the newspaper said.

Declassified sections of the report include testimony from several unidentified officials who criticised the Saudi government for being uncooperative in terrorism investigations, but make no reference to Riyadh's financing of groups that support terror, the Times said.

But some people who read the classified pages said it represented a searing indictment of how Saudi Arabia's ruling elite have distributed millions to extremists through an informal network of Saudi nationals, including some in the United States, the newspaper reported.