FBI OPENING HUNGARY OFFICE

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- The FBI is opening its first permanent office abroad
in Hungary, a move that will allow agents to work with foreign police in an
investigative task force, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Four FBI agents will help Hungarian police investigate organized crime -
particularly involving Russians - trafficking in drugs and weapons, money
laundering and other crimes, the U.S. Embassy in Hungary said in a statement.

FBI spokesman Bill Carter said in Washington that the agents will be
allowed to carry guns but will not have law enforcement powers. They will
accompany Hungarian police on raids, searches and interrogations.

The office is expected to open this spring.

"The office will be on the premises of the International Law Enforcement
Academy, but there are many details yet to be worked out," the deputy
communications director of the Hungarian National Police, Lt. Col. Andras
Rozsa, told The Associated Press.

It will operate on the basis of a September agreement signed between FBI
Director Louis Freeh and the Hungarian Interior Ministry. At the signing,
Freeh stressed the need for international police cooperation to combat
international terrorism and organized crime.

The FBI has 38 offices around the world in which agents are assigned to
U.S. embassies as legal attaches, working with the local foreign police to
follow up leads on cases.

FBI agents have also worked on investigations abroad alongside foreign
police before, but these were in temporary assignments limited to one case
or several related cases, like the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland,
or the embassy bombings in East Africa.