WASHINGTON - President Bush's top national security advisers were told more than two years ago of an FBI investigation into whether classified information was passed to Israel by a powerful pro-Israeli lobbying group, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The counterintelligence investigation started earlier than the probe disclosed last week focusing on whether a Defense Department analyst passed secret documents about Iran to Israeli intelligence through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

A senior administration official said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, were "apprised of the counterintelligence investigation of AIPAC" more than two years ago.

The official said the investigation centered on whether AIPAC was acting as a "conduit" -- relaying information the group collected from the administration and the U.S. Congress to Israel, Washington's closest ally in the Middle East.

The Washington Post reported in its Friday edition that the FBI counterintelligence agents were also investigating whether Pentagon officials leaked classified information to Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi.

The newspaper quoted a senior U.S. official as saying that senior White House officials, including Rice and Hadley, had been apprised that Chalabi - once a Pentagon favorite but now out of favor with the U.S. government - is part of the investigation.

Since the White House National Security Council was informed of the case, Bush, Rice and other senior administration officials have praised AIPAC.

Addressing the group in May, Bush said AIPAC was "serving the cause of America," including its role in highlighting "the threat posed by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons."

In a March 2003 speech, Rice called AIPAC "a great asset to our country."

AIPAC, which has denied any wrongdoing, pointed to those comments and others as "vindication of AIPAC's loyalty and trustworthiness."

The White House declined to comment on whether knowledge of the counterintelligence probe affected contacts with AIPAC.

The group has had high-level contacts with the Bush White House, as well as previous U.S. administrations. "Those contacts continue unaffected," an AIPAC official said.

As part of the investigation disclosed last week, FBI agents met on Friday with two AIPAC officials to ask about their contacts with the Pentagon analyst.

The FBI copied one of their computer hard drives and AIPAC provided investigators with some documents, sources said on Wednesday. The interviews, stopped when the AIPAC officials asked for their lawyers, have yet to resume, officials said.

The FBI declined to comment.

AIPAC said it is cooperating fully with U.S. investigators.

"Neither AIPAC nor any of its employees has violated any laws or rules, nor has AIPAC or its employees ever received information they believed was secret or classified," the organization said.

The sources said the two AIPAC officials interviewed by the FBI were not advised that they were targets of the investigation, launched more than a year ago on suspicions the Pentagon analyst passed secret papers to the Jewish state about one of its most bitter enemies, Iran.

Israel has denied spying on its main ally.

The top-ranking Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, has called for the committee to investigate the handling of the classified material.

But some of the lawmakers briefed on the FBI's case have reacted skeptically to the evidence presented so far, congressional aides said.

© 2004 Reuters Ltd

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