LONDON, April 2: US officials knew months before Sept 11, 2001, that the Al Qaeda network was planning to use aircraft to carry out an attack, a former FBI translator has alleged.

Sibel Edmonds told Britain's Independent newspaper, in an interview published on Friday, that a claim by US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that there had been no such warnings was "an outrageous lie".

The former translator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that she had discussed her claims during a three-hour closed-door session with a US commission looking into the Sept 11 attacks.

"There was general information about the timeframe, about methods to be used - but not specifically about how they would be used - and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks," Sibel Edmonds said.

"There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities - with skyscrapers."

The 33-year-old Turkish-American translator said that, based on documents she had seen during her time with the FBI, after Sept 11, it was "impossible" that US intelligence officials had no forewarning of the attacks.

In a significant about-face, President Bush agreed on Tuesday to let Condoleezza Rice testify before the independent bipartisan commission looking into the Sept 11 attacks.

The Independent reported that the White House had sought to silence Sibel Edmonds and had obtained a gagging order from a court.

The ex-FBI official emerged as a whistleblower in July last year when, on the CBS television network, she alleged that FBI officials deliberately slowed down the translation of Sept 11-related documents to make it appear that the department was sorely understaffed.

Sibel Edmonds was among many language experts who had responded to appeals for translators in the days following Sept 11. She was tasked with translating documents and recordings from FBI wire taps.

From the documents she saw, she told The Independent, it was clear that there was sufficient information in spring and summer of 2001 to indicate that an attack was being planned.

"President Bush said they had no specific information about Sept 11 and that is accurate but only because he said Sept 11," Ms Edmonds told the Independent.

There was, however, general information about the use of aeroplanes and that an attack was just months away.

The most damning criticism of the Bush administration has come from former White House anti-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, who has alleged that it failed to give the Al Qaeda threat enough priority.

Mr Clarke, who left the White House last year, testified before the Sept 11 commission, shortly after the publication of his memoirs that were highly critical of the Bush administration's counter-terrorist efforts. -AFP