English/Nat

China is denying it tried to influence U-S politics by donating money to President Clinton's Democratic Party or members of Congress.

A senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official has asked the U-S embassy to put an end to media reports suggesting Beijing had made campaign contributions.

Meanwhile, in the United States the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the White House clashed in a rare public quarrel.

The F-B-I is contradicting the White House's version of events about a warning that China might try to influence U-S elections through campaign contributions.

President Bill Clinton was unequivocal when asked whether he thought a president should be informed of intelligence reports revealing the possibility that a foreign government -- in this case China -- may have been trying to influence U-S elections.

SOUNDBITE:

"Yes. The President should know."

SUPER CAPTION: U.S. President Bill Clinton

President Clinton complained he should have been alerted to the F-B-I's suspicions about the Chinese government.

At a joint news conference with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, Clinton also suggested he was angrier about the matter than he appeared.

SOUNDBITE:

"What I seem like and what I feel may be two different things. The older I get the more I realise there are certain things not worth spending energy on. It (the briefing) did happen, it should not have, but it did and it was a mistake."

SUPER CAPTION: U.S. President Bill Clinton

The White House says the Federal Bureau of Investigation told two national security officials not to tell their seniors about a bureau warning that China might try to influence elections.

But in a rare public contradiction, the F-B-I released a statement late Monday, saying that was not true.

The bureau said that it "placed no restriction whatsoever" about information going up the chain of command.

However the administration insists the two officials clearly recall being urged "not to disseminate the information outside the briefing room."

Before the F-B-I statement was released, Clinton said he asked his top lawyer, F.C. Ruff, and his national security chief, Sandy Berger, to look into the matter.

SOUNDBITE:

"The first and foremost thing is to find out the truth if we can. The second thing is to find out exactly how this happened, which is why I have instructed the N-S-C to look into it -- which is, what did the agents say, were they instructed to say it. We don't know the answer to a lot of these questions. I think it is better for us to be calm, disciplined, firm, straightforward. There's no point shedding more heat than light on this. As we know the facts we'll be able to make our judgements about what should be done and how to move forward."

SUPER CAPTION: U.S. President Bill Clinton

Clinton said his government has not determined if China really was attempting to influence U-S politics.

And for its part, China is denying the allegations.