Buenos Aires - Argentine Justice officials on Thursday raided Siemens offices in Buenos Aires, the latest in a series of actions against the firm in a widespread international bribery case.

The action - ordered by Judge Ariel Lijo - sought to seize a memorandum in which Siemens allegedly admitted the payment of bribes in Argentina, as the German-based company did in other countries, Argentine news agency DyN reported.

Siemens in Buenos Aires confirmed the raid, but would not give any further details. Their offices had already been raided by the authorities in August.

Lijo told a radio station that he requested from Siemens the memorandum in question but got a reply from Germany, saying that the internal audit document was not to be handed over to the judge. For this reason, Lijo said, he ordered raids in five company facilities in the South American country, DyN added, citing the judge.

Lijo is investigating whether former Peronist Argentine president Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and his Interior minister Carlos Corach took bribes from the German tech giant in connection with a large contract. Former Siemens employees have said this was the case, in the course of investigations against the company in Germany and the United States.

In the 1990s, Siemens allegedly used bribery to obtain a large contract for the production of digitalized identity documents in Argentina. After the contract - worth some 1 billion dollars - was cancelled in the wake of a change of government in 1999, Siemens allegedly again paid bribes to refloat the deal. (dpa)