FBI admits 'serious bungle' over Timothy McVeigh trial

The FBI's director has admitted the agency made a "serious error" in the Timothy McVeigh case.

Louis Freeh says the law enforcement body blundered by not providing Timothy McVeigh's lawyers with some of the evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing case.

The statement is the first from an FBI official since the disclosure that more than 3,000 pages of documents were withheld from McVeigh's lawyers at the time of his trial.

Mr Freeh appeared before a House Appropriations sub-committee six days after the revelation and a day after testifying behind closed doors on the problem before the Senate intelligence committee.

"Regardless of how extraneous these documents are, if they were covered by the discovery agreement, they should have been located and released during discovery," Mr Freeh said. "As director, I have taken responsibility. The buck does stop with me."

The FBI has come in for withering criticism in recent days and Attorney General John Ashcroft last week postponed until June 11 McVeigh's execution by lethal injection.