WASHINGTON -- In the months before the Iraqi elections in January, President Bush approved a plan to provide covert support to certain Iraqi candidates and political parties but rescinded the proposal because of congressional opposition, current and former government officials said Saturday.

Any clandestine U.S. effort to influence the Iraqi elections, or to provide particular support to candidates or parties seen as amenable to working with the United States, would have run counter to Bush's assertions that the vote would be free and unfettered.

In a statement issued in response to questions about a report in the next issue of the New Yorker magazine, Frederick Jones, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said that "in the final analysis, the president determined and the United States government adopted a policy that we would not try -- and did not try -- to influence the outcome of the Iraqi election by covertly helping individual candidates for office."

The New Yorker article, by Seymour M. Hersh, reports that the administration proceeded with the covert plan over the congressional objections.

Several senior Bush administration officials disputed that, although they recalled renewed discussions within the administration last fall about how the United States might counter what was seen as extensive Iranian support to pro- Iranian Shiite parties.

Any clandestine U.S. effort to influence the Iraqi elections, or to provide particular support to candidates or parties seen as amenable to working with the United States, would have run counter to Bush's assertions that the vote would be free and unfettered.

The article cites unidentified former military and intelligence officials who said the administration had gone ahead with covert election activities in Iraq that "were conducted by retired CIA officers and other nongovernment personnel, and used funds that were not necessarily appropriated by Congress." But it does not provide details and says "the methods and the scope of the covert effort have been hard to discern."

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Rancho Palos Verdes (Los Angeles County), the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement saying that she could not discuss classified information, adding, "Congress was consulted about the administration's posture in the Iraqi election. I was personally consulted. But if the administration did what is alleged, that would be a violation of the covert action requirements, and that would be deeply troubling."

Despite the denials by some Bush administration officials Saturday, others who took part in or were briefed on the discussion said they could not rule out the possibility that the United States and its allies might have provided secret aid to augment the broad overt support provided to Iraqi candidates and parties by the State Department, through organizations such as the International Democratic Institute.

They said they were basing their comments primarily on the intensity of discussions within the administration about the potential harm of a victory by Iraqi parties hostile to the United States.

Officials and former officials familiar with the debate inside the White House last year said that after considerable debate, Bush's national security advisers recommended that he sign a secret, formal authorization for covert action to influence the election, called a finding.

They said that Bush either had already signed it or was about to when objections were raised in Congress. Ultimately, he rescinded the decision, the officials said.

Among those who discussed the matter in interviews Saturday were a dozen current and former government officials from Congress, the State Department, intelligence agencies and the Bush administration. None would speak for the record, citing the extreme sensitivity of discussing any covert action, which by design is never to be acknowledged by the U.S. government.

Time magazine first reported in October 2004 that the administration had encountered congressional opposition over a plan to provide covert support to Iraqi candidates. The New Yorker account detailed more elements of that debate.

Bush's precise reasons for rescinding the plan are not clear. Among those whom Time and the New Yorker cited as raising objections was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco.

A spokeswoman for Pelosi, Jennifer Crider, said Saturday that Pelosi could neither confirm nor deny that she objected. "Leader Pelosi has never publicly spoken about any classified information and would never threaten to take any classified information public," Crider said. "That is against the law. "

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