Officials have said that a claim that U. S. officials were offered a chance to review stolen military documents before they were posted on the WikiLeaks site is untrue.

Marine Corps spokesman Col. David Lapan said in a Defense Department release, "It's absolutely false that WikiLeaks contacted the White House and offered to have them look through the documents."

According to the release, the Web site published tens of thousands of classified documents that detailed field reports from Afghanistan and an alleged Pakistani partnership with the Taliban. Also published were documents with identifying information on Afghan informants who work or have worked with the U. S. military.

The White House was contacted prior to the release of the documents for help in reviewing them to make sure innocent names were not released, said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange also said that White House officials declined.

Lapan said, "We never had the opportunity to look at any of the documents in advance to determine anything. The documents were brought to the attention of the White House, but no copies of documents, or opportunities to review were given."

The Defense Department has asked the FBI to assist in investigating the leak of the classified material, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said. (With Inputs from Agencies)