WASHINGTON, June 2: Disgraced Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi told an Iranian intelligence official in April that the United States had broken Iran's secret communications code, The New York Times said on Wednesday.

The betrayal contributed to the US government's decision to break with Mr Chalabi, the one-time darling of Washington's neo-conservatives whose home in Baghdad was raided by Iraqi police and the US military last month.

After the raids, it was widely reported that Mr Chalabi had passed on US secrets to Iran, which Chalabi and his aides have denied, but the US government asked the media, including The New York Times, not to publish details of the case.

"The administration withdrew its request on Tuesday," said the daily, adding that the US government said news reports on Mr Chalabi's alleged betrayal had begun to appear.

According to US officials, it was six weeks ago when Mr Chalabi told the Baghdad station chief of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security that Washington was reading the Iranian intelligence service' communications traffic.

US intelligence was tipped off to Mr Chalabi's alleged betrayal when it read a cable the Baghdad station chief sent to his superiors in Iran detailing his conversation with Chalabi. In the cable, the Iranian official said Chalabi had told him a drunk American had told him the US had broken the Iranian code.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an espionage investigation into Mr Chalabi's alleged contacts with Iran and to determine who revealed the Iranian code information to him, the daily said. -AFP