The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has apologized to editors of two United States newspapers for a recently uncovered breach of reporters' phone records while working in Indonesia in 2004.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III called over the weekend the top editors at The Washington Post and the New York Times to express regret that agents had not followed procedures when seeking telephone records under a process that allowed them to bypass a grand jury review in emergency cases.

FBI officials said the incident came to light as part of the review by the Justice Department inspector general's office into the bureau's improper collection of phone records through "emergency" records demands issued to phone providers.

The records were apparently sought as part of a terrorism investigation, but the FBI did not explain what was being investigated or why the reporters' phone records were considered relevant.

The FBI obtained the records of two reporters for the Times in Indonesia, Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez, as well as two on the Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima and Natasha Tampubolon, officials said.

Efforts to obtain phone records for reporters are subject to special rules at the Justice Department, generally requiring approval by the attorney general or another top official. But such procedures were not followed in the two incidents found by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, bureau officials said yesterday, as quoted by the Washington Post.

FBI agents involved in the probe stated that at the time of the request, they would follow up with subpoenas from a United States attorney, but none was ever issued.

Toll phone records are akin to a listing of phone calls that are made or received, without offering any insight into the substance of the conversations. Such transactional records can be useful building blocks for investigators seeking to develop leads and make connections between people under government scrutiny.

The procedure used to secure the toll phone records is known as an exigent circumstances letter, which flourished after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- when investigators raced to collect phone records and e-mails from telecommunications companies to pursue leads in national security probes.

The FBI said the numbers had been purged from their databases and that the records were not used as part of any investigation.

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