WASHINGTON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wants to pay the major telecom companies to retain their customers' Internet and phone call information for at least two years for the agency's use in counterterrorism investigations and is asking Congress for 5 million U.S. dollars a year to defray the cost, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

    The newspaper, quoting FBI officials and budget documents, said the agency would not have direct access to the records but would need to present a subpoena or an administrative warrant, known as a national security letter, to obtain the information that the companies would keep in a database.

    The proposal has raised concerns by civil libertarians who point to telecom companies' alleged involvement in the government's domestic surveillance program and to a recent Justice Department inspector general's report on FBI abuse of national security letters.

    The inspector general's report disclosed that the bureau was issuing "exigent letters", telling telephone companies that the bureau needed information immediately and would follow up with subpoenas later. In many cases, agents did not follow up. Moreover, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found, there was no legal basis to compel the disclosure of information using such letters.

    The proposal "is circumventing the law by paying companies to do something the FBI couldn't do itself legally," Michael German, American Civil Liberties Union policy counsel on national security, was quoted as saying.

    Mark J. Zwillinger, a Washington lawyer who represents Internet service providers, said companies have no "business reason" to keep the data. Moreover, he said he did not think telecom companies "are in the business of becoming the investigative arm for the government, keeping data just so the government can get access to it."

    The Post report cited industry sources as saying that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III urged telecom providers last year to keep subscriber information and network data for two years.

    Legislation is pending in Congress that would require companies to keep the data, and the administration is attempting to win immunity for telecom companies from criminal and civil liability for any role in the surveillance program, the report said.