BOGOTA – The United States gave Colombia's intelligence service equipment for intercepting telephone calls and other support with the "sole" goal of helping Bogota, which is embroiled in a scandal over illegal wire taps, defeat drug traffickers and illegal armed groups, U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said.

U.S. security agencies have provided support to Colombia's DAS spy agency, but the "principal, fundamental and sole (objective) was to resist, combat and eventually defeat drug trafficking, international crime and terrorism," Brownfield said on Monday.

President Alvaro Uribe denied that he ordered the widespread wiretapping of politicians, journalists, judges, soldiers and officials that was uncovered by Colombia's leading newsweekly.

The president referred in a written statement sent Monday to RCN radio to the illegal wiretaps blamed on officials of the DAS spy agency in a story published over the weekend by Semana magazine.

Uribe said he was "deeply hurt" by what happened at the DAS, noting that those behind the illegal wiretaps were "a criminal gang that harms Colombia's democracy, liberty, the country and the very government I lead."

"I have never given a single order to watch the private lives of people. I am a fair man, who plays clean with his opponents and does not play tricks. Those who know me know that I do not act that way," the president said.

Semana reported that the targets of the illegal spying included former Supreme Court chief Francisco Javier Ricaurte, who had differences with Uribe, and journalists Julio Sanchez Cristo, Dario Arizmendi and Daniel Coronell.

Wiretaps on the telephones of prominent opposition Sen. Gustavo Petro and attorney and columnist Ramiro Bejarano, one of the president's harshest critics, are also being investigated.

While charges of illegal wiretapping have been made on various occasions, the newsweekly reported that orders were given Jan. 19-21 to the DAS to destroy hundreds of documents, hard disks, audio files and classified files.

In the wake of the allegations, new DAS director Felipe Muñoz on Sunday accepted the resignation of the spy agency's head of counterintelligence, Capt. Jorge Alberto Lagos.

Attorney General Mario Iguaran, meanwhile, ordered a search of DAS officers to try to find evidence of the warrantless intercepts. EFE