American and Israeli officials, however, deny these reports, which appeared on a Web site called Intelligence Online and in Le Monde newspaper. Intelligence Online said the alleged spy ring was uncovered by the US Justice Department and was based on what it said was a secret report by the Drug Enforcement Agency which first uncovered the existence of the network.

According to the reports, the members of the group tried to infiltrate DEA offices to get into data files but were caught in the attempt. The ring was purportedly formed to monitor the activities of al-Qaida members in the US and operated mostly in Florida, temporary home to half of the suicide hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 mass terror attacks in the US.

French media claim the spies are all from elite Israel Defense Forces units and some used the cover of art students to try to enter buildings by pretending to sell their art, while others worked in Israeli high-tech firms in the US. Le Monde said the secret report noted that all the women in the spy ring were "very attractive." It said most members of the ring have been deported from the US.

But the FBI assured on Tuesday that no Israeli had been charged with spying in the United States in connection with the alleged ring of Israeli agents. "This issue of an Israeli spying network, is not an issue," said Bill Carter, an FBI spokesman. "No Israeli has been charged with espionage by the FBI or the Department of Justice in this matter."

The spokesman, however, recalled that a group of Israeli students "allegedly were involved in activity outside of their visas" [most likely working without a green card] and all have already been removed from the US for this violation.

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington also dismissed the report as "nonsense" on Tuesday.

An Israeli diplomat also assured that, "There is currently no Israeli detained in the United States for visa problems. Those who were detained following the [Sept. 11] attacks because the United States was undertaking a large-scale operation to track all the illegal immigrants, were sent back to Israel," the source added.

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, unsubstantiated reports have persistently surfaced of Israelis spies operating in the US or that Israeli intelligence knew of the impending attacks but did not warn American authorities.

In the Arab media, the far-fetched story is still circulating that the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, warned some 4,000 Jews who worked in the World Trade Center towers not to go to work that day. Also, a recent poll taken in nine Islamic countries shows that 61 percent of Muslims do not believe Arabs were behind the attacks.

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