Republicans Accused of Electoral Bugging

Democrats have accused the Bush administration of resorting to dirty tricks in a close and bitter election for control of Philadelphia after FBI listening devices were found in the mayor's office.

The FBI refused to explain the purpose of the bugs found in a routine police sweep of the offices of the mayor, John Street, on Tuesday, less than a month before the election in which Mr Street is being challenged by his Republican rival, Sam Katz. FBI officials admitted the bugs were theirs, but insisted they had nothing to do with the mayoral election. They did not disclose the purpose of their investigation.

The mystery has thrown the Street re-election campaign into turmoil. "It has been confirmed by the US attorney that I am not the target of any federal investigation and that's very important to me," the mayor said yesterday.

The FBI refusal to comment further enraged Pennsylvania Democrats, who said the affair left a cloud hanging over Mr Street's campaign. They questioned whether the timing of the affair was deliberate.

"I would normally say this wasn't political, but the thing that raises everyone's suspicions is that the FBI was so eager to say, two nights ago, that this is nothing to do with the political campaign," the Pennsylvania governor, Ed Rendell, said. He argued that the FBI had made sure to exonerate Republicans, but did nothing to clear Mr Street.

"We don't confirm or deny investigations," Linda Vizi, the spokeswoman for the FBI office in Philadelphia, said. "We have tried to be very fair, and we are limited by department of justice guidelines as to what we can say."

Legal experts said that any decision to send in one of the FBI's covert "black bag" teams to break into the office of a high-profile politician and plant a bug would have to be approved by John Ashcroft, the Bush administration's attorney-general.

"Do we believe that the Republican party, both at the federal level and state level, is pulling out every stop to get Pennsylvania in 2004?" said Frank Keel, a spokesman for the Street campaign. "Absolutely. Is the Republican Party capable of dirty tricks? I think that is well documented."

Both the Republican national committee and the FBI rejected the claim that politics had been involved in the bugging of the mayoral offices. Mr Katz claimed that any "political innuendo" around the affair was unfair.

Mr Street beat Mr Katz by less than 10,000 votes four years ago, and the rivalry has shaped Philadelphia politics ever since.

This year, the contest has been particularly ugly. In August, there was an abortive attempt to firebomb a Katz campaign office, and a Street aide has been charged with intimidation. Mr Street is black and Mr Katz is white, and each has accused the other of trying to make race an issue.