According to information from the National Security Office, five members of the FIDESZ-led government had links to communist-era secret service agencies, the weekly Heti Vilaggazdasag reported on Thursday. The weekly said that two members of Viktor Orban's cabinet had ties to the domestic security (III-III) department, and three were linked with the counterintelligence (III-II) agency.

Although the names of those involved were not made public, former PHARE Funds Minister Imre Boros, Orban's former office chief, Istvan Stumpf, former Finance Minister Mihaly Varga, and former Sports Minister Tamas Deutsch denied any connection with communist-era secret services. Imre Mecs, chairman of the parliamentary commission investigating ties to those agencies by cabinet members since the change of regime, said a second list from the Historical Office registry shows that a previous cabinet member signed a co-operation pact with the country's security agency and that three members filed reports.

(NewsBase 05.viii.02)