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THE White House official responsible for mishandling hundreds of highly confidential FBI personnel files resigned yesterday, moments before a congressional committee began cross-examining him about his conduct.

Craig Livingstone, a former night club bouncer who rose to be chief of personnel security in the Clinton White House, paid the price for his role in the latest embarrassing episode to hit the administration. He was on indefinite paid leave by the White House before falling on his sword.

The row over the files shows no signs of abating as fresh details leak out almost daily. It is now known that more than 600 FBI files were ordered up and stored inside the White House, fuelling speculation that staff were working on an "enemies list" of former members of Republican administrations.

New documents reluctantly released by the White House this week showed that Robert Gates, former director of the CIA, and Brent Scowcroft, President Bush's national security adviser, were among those whose files were brought to the White House.

So far the White House has not explained to the satisfaction of Congress what the staff were doing with these documents. Mr Livingstone apologised to the committee for invading the privacy of 600 individuals, but he insisted there was nothing sinister about his actions.

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