Pressure mounts over terror bets

Senators have criticised the terror market scheme

Democrats in the United States are demanding details of any Pentagon project related to the online trading scheme that aimed to predict terrorist attacks.

They are also calling for those responsible for the trading market, which was abandoned just one day after its details were revealed, to be sacked.

Republicans have joined the Democrats in criticising the online market, saying the Pentagon never made it clear that the US Congress would be funding the project.

The trading market would have worked by taking bets on future terrorist attacks, conflicts, and assassination attempts.

From the trading patterns, the Pentagon hoped to gain clues about possible terrorist attacks that might not be picked up by government agencies.

'Totally unauthorised'

But the scheme was quickly withdrawn and widely condemned, with Democrats in the US Senate describing the plan as grotesque and ridiculous.

I think those who thought it up ought not only close down the programme, they ought not be on the public payroll any longer North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan

Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said: "I think those who thought it up ought not only close down the programme, they ought not be on the public payroll any longer."

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, of Alaska, said: "It's totally unauthorised as far as we're concerned. No funds should have been used for it at all."

Another Republican Senator, John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said funding information about the online trading scheme was vague.

The Pentagon had requested $3m for FutureMAP, or Futures Markets Applied to Predictions, next year and $5 million for 2005.

Senator Warner said: "You could not tell from this document requesting $3m what this programme was about."

The trading market would have worked by getting traders to deposit money in an account and using that to buy and sell contracts.

They would have made their money if a particular event actually happened

"Research indicates that markets are extremely efficient, effective and timely aggregators of dispersed and even hidden information," said US Defence Department, defending the idea in a statement on Monday.