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By Lori Santos

WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers urged the White House on Sunday to more aggressively investigate reports that Saudi Arabia funneled money to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, a charge denied by the kingdom, and whether the FBI failed to pursue the alleged ties.

With U.S. investigations of the allegations ongoing, Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut criticized the Bush administration for not investigating the matter more fully. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona questioned the White House's policy toward Saudi Arabia, and Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, demanded an independent investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general.

"This administration ought to be demanding a full public accounting by the FBI and the CIA about what they know about Saudi involvement," Lieberman said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican and member of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, said the FBI "ought to relentlessly pursue these leads wherever they go."

"If it's the royal family, we need to put it out and the American people need to know," Shelby told NBC's "Meet the Press."

The lawmakers reacted strongly to the charges, first outlined by Newsweek magazine, which said payments reached the hijackers, possibly via two Saudi students living in the United States who had obtained them from an account in the name of Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

An aide to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, foreign policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir, made the round of Sunday talk shows to deny the princess intended to fund the hijackers with the $2,000-a-month payments. He said there was "no evidence" the Saudi government had sent money to the hijackers and added the royal family was "outraged."

The White House said a broad FBI investigation of the charges was continuing.

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

A congressional inquiry into last year's Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington has been investigating a possible money trail from from the Saudi government to two of the hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, sources said.

The revelations disturbed lawmakers in both U.S. political parties, including leaders of the intelligence committee who already have accused the FBI of failing to fully investigate the attacks. Other lawmakers also questioned the administration's policy toward Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer and an important U.S. ally.

"Our government has been very lax in our efforts to make the Saudis cooperate in a broad variety of ways," said McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "... The list goes on and on of Saudi failures."

Added Schumer: "The greatest weakness in the president's foreign policy is that he refuses to tell the Saudis, 'Fess up, which side of the fence are you on? And if you're on our side, stop all the shenanigans.'"

Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, the leading Democrat on the intelligence panel, also questioned whether "only two of the 19 hijackers received this kind of support?"

"We don't have any reason to believe ... there are not still infrastructures of support and cooperation here inside the United States facilitating the next wave of terror," Graham told NBC.

Schumer said he would ask the inspector general of the Justice Department "to do an independent and thorough investigation."

"Why didn't we pursue these Saudi leads before they became public? It seems every time the Saudis are involved, we stop."

Newsweek said the FBI had found a steady stream of payments to the family of one of the students, Omar al-Bayoumi, beginning early in 2000. It said Bayoumi had befriended the hijackers in San Diego several months earlier.

The Saudi spokesman acknowledged Princess Haifa gave money to the family of Osama Basnan to help defray medical costs. Bayoumi was a friend of Basnan's.

He said there was no evidence any of the money made it into the hands of the hijackers and that embassy officials were still poring over bank records. He said both students had been detained by FBI agents and then released.

Saudi-U.S. relations were strained after the hijacked plane attacks after it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. About 3,000 people were killed.

White House spokesman Sean McCormack said on Saturday the FBI had "received some cooperation from the Saudis on this investigation, which is ongoing." 

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