FBI probes if US official spied for Israel

No arrests have been made, said two federal law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation. A third law enforcement official, also speaking anonymously, said an arrest in the case could come as early as next week.

The officials refused to identify the Pentagon employee under investigation but said the person is an analyst in the office of Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of defence for policy, the Pentagon's No. 3 official.

The link to Feith's office also could prove politically sensitive for the Bush administration.

Feith is an influential aide to Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld who works on sensitive policy issues including US policy toward Iraq and Iran. Feith's office includes a cadre assigned specifically to work on Iran.

He also oversaw the Pentagon's defunct Office of Special Plans, which critics said fed policy-makers uncorroborated prewar intelligence on President Saddam Hussein's Iraq, especially involving purported ties with the al-Qaeda terror network. Pentagon officials have said the office was a small operation that provided fresh analysis on existing intelligence.

The Pentagon said in a statement that the investigation involves an employee at "the desk officer level, who was not in a position to have significant influence over US policy. Nor could a foreign power be in a position to influence US policy through this individual."

One of the law enforcement officials said the person was not in a policy-making position but had access to extremely sensitive information about US policy toward Iran.

The investigation centers on whether the Pentagon analyst passed secrets about Bush administration policy on Iran to the main pro-Israeli lobbying group in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which then was said to have given the secrets to the Israeli government, one official said. Both AIPAC and Israel deny the allegations.

President Bush has identified Iran as part of an "axis of evil," along with North Korea and the Iraqi government deposed by the US-led invasion last year.