Berger quits as Kerry's informal adviser

Former US national security adviser Sandy Berger on Tuesday quit as an informal adviser to Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry following the disclosure of an investigation into whether he improperly removed notes and classified documents from the National Archives.

Berger said he had made an "honest mistake" and expressed regret over the incident.

Berger said he inadvertently took some documents when he was reviewing documents at the Archives last summer and fall to prepare the Clinton administration's responses to inquiries from the Sept. 11 commission.

"Last year when I was in the Archives reviewing documents I made an honest mistake. It's one that I deeply regret," he said ina statement.

"Everything that I have done all along in this process has beenfor the purpose of aiding and supporting the work of the 9/11 commission and any suggestion to the contrary is simply absolutelywrong," he said.

The disclosure of the investigation came when the Sept. 11 commission was to release its final report on Thursday, and the probe has escalated into an election-year firefight between Democrats and Republicans.

Republicans accused Berger of stealing the documents for the use by Kerry's campaign at a news conference on port security, andDemocrats questioned the probe's timing and accused Republicans oftrying to distract attention from the Sept. 11 commission's report.

Kerry said in a statement that he respected Berger's decision to step aside as an adviser to the campaign until the matter was resolved "objectively and fairly."

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the inspector generalof the National Archives began an investigation last October and turned it over to the FBI in January.

FBI agents searched Berger's office and home safe, and the probe is continuing, Berger's attorney Lanny Breuer said.

Berger served as former President Bill Clinton's national security adviser from 1997 to 2001.