A document has shown that Henry Kissinger, while U. S. secretary of state, halted a plan to warn South American dictators against international political assassinations.

The newly declassified document reveals Kissinger halted the warning days before a bombing linked to Chile killed two people in Washington, The Los Angeles Times has reported.

The document, cabled from Kissinger to his top Latin American deputy, halted U. S. diplomats' efforts to warn Chile, Uruguay and Argentina against involvement in the covert plan "Operation Condor." The South American dictators' secret program of planned international assassinations began in 1975 and targeted political opponents throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States, Peter Kornbluh, an analyst with the non-profit National Security Archive, which uncovered the document and made it public Saturday, said.

In the Sept. 16, 1976, cable, Kissinger rejected delivery of a proposed warning to the government of Uruguay about Condor operations and ordered "no further action be taken on this matter" by the U. S. State Department.

The Times further said that five days later, Chilean exile Orlando Letelier and an American colleague were killed in a Washington car-bombing later linked to Chilean secret police working through the Condor network.

Kornbluh, the author of a 2004 book on Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, said, "The document confirms that it's Kissinger's complete responsibility for having rescinded a cease-and-desist order to Condor killers."

The Times further said that former State Department officials who worked under Kissinger at the time said the cable disrupted the U. S. effort to curtail Operation Condor, not only with Uruguay but also with other countries in the region. (With Inputs from Agencies)