The owner of Harrods department store in London, who was furious when again refused a British passport last week, was being investigated by MI6, Britain's overseas intelligence service, The Sunday Times said.

The paper said MI6 had evidence that Fayed had assembled the list of 116 operatives whose names, dates of birth and location were released on the Internet earlier this week.

It added, however, that there was no evidence that Fayed had released the list, and a spokesman for Fayed said late Saturday that any suggestion that he had done so was ``wholly irresponsible''.

``While Mr. Al-Fayed believes in a more open society, he does not condone the publications of the names of secret agents,'' said the spokesman.

Asked to explain the relationship between Fayed and Richard Tomlinson, the renegade MI6 agentaccused by London of being behind the publication, the spokesman said Tomlinson had once approached Fayed over information he said he had over the death of Fayed's son Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

``He (Tomlinson) was advised to go to the investigating authorities,'' said the spokesman.

However, the spokesman offered no comment on Fayed's relationship with Executive Intelligence Review, the American magazine which received an e-mail of the 116 alleged agents and published them on the Internet on Monday.

Senior correspondent Jeffrey Steiner was quoted as telling the paper that he had met Fayed twice and often spoke to his staff.

Finally The Sunday Times pointed to similarities between remarks Fayed made to it and to the text of the e-mail.

A week ago, Fayed told the paper: ``Really that is (an) Al Capone system, you know, and you see the KGB building over there, that is MI5 and MI6. Who created this Official Secrets Act? It is the establishment and the(royal) household, right? They are above the law, accountable to nobody.''

The e-mail, published three days later, read: ``They are accountable to nobody. They are subordinated to the elite people of this country, for example the royal household and the establishment. This `Al Capone' style organisation has removed the human rights of ordinary people, not only in this country but worldwide.''

The paper said Fayed had spoken of an alleged MI6 ``execution officer'' named on the published list, and had told it that his information came from Tomlinson.

Tomlinson denied on Friday that he released the names on the Internet. But London said it remained convinced that Tomlinson, who has never pardoned his dismissal from MI6 in 1995, was the source for the highly embarrassing disclosures.

A Foreign Office spokesman said on Friday: ``There is no one else in the frame. Even if he did not physically put the names on the Internet, there's no real difference if he provided the names for someone else to doit.''

Tomlinson admitted he had threatened in the past to reveal the names of former colleagues, but he added, ``I didn't actually do this.''

Frantic efforts were made to contain the spread of the information after it was disclosed on Wednesday that a US-based website existed containing the top-secret details.

But, the Foreign Office admitted on Friday that another website had published the names.

Tomlinson, 35, who lives in Geneva, was jailed for six months in Britain in late 1997 after he showed the synopsis of a book on his MI6 career to an Australian publisher.