Rights groups call for surveillance limits.

WASHINGTON -- Civil rights advocates are calling for Congress to increase its oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's surveillance of suspects in intelligence investigations, in light of newly disclosed records indicating that the FBI had violated the law.

But the FBI defended its record, saying it had been diligent in policing itself and in correcting lapses that it considered to be largely technical and procedural.

The debate was prompted by a set of internal FBI documents made public Monday that disclosed at least a dozen violations of federal law or bureau policy from 2002 to 2004 in the handling of surveillance and investigative matters.

Expanding on that data, the FBI said on Monday that internal reviews had identified a total of 113 violations since last year that were referred to a federal intelligence board.

In several cases, the documents released Monday showed, FBI agents extended investigations and surveillance operations for months without giving proper approval from supervisors or giving notification.

In another case, an FBI agent still on probation gained access to banking records without getting needed approval, in violation federal privacy restrictions. In a separate episode, an agency outside the FBI, apparently the Central Intelligence Agency, was improperly allowed to conduct a physical search in the United States, without the target's consent, as part of a counter-intelligence investigation.

"New agent didn't understand/know rules," read a handwritten note related to one inquiry that was referred to the Intelligence Oversight Board for further action.

While most of the cases appeared to be related to intelligence and national security investigations in field offices around the country, the FBI blacked out virtually all details about the exact nature of the investigations. The documents were obtained through a public records act request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a group that lobbies for greater privacy rights and civil liberties, and were first reported on Monday in The Washington Post.

Officials at the privacy center said the documents suggested abuses of authority by the FBI under the expanded powers granted under the USA Patriot Act, the antiterrorism law that Congress will consider extending in coming weeks. The privacy group said congressional oversight committees had never been properly informed of the possible violations, and it called on Congress to exercise greater oversight.

"These are instances of alleged abuse in domestic Intelligence investigations by the FBI, and we consider the failure to report these issues to Congress to be a really serious one," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the privacy center.

But FBI officials said in interviews that few of the cases cited in the public records documents related directly to the bureau's expanded powers under the Patriot Act Internal reports of suspected violations have droned since last year, the FBI said. The FBI said the lapses cited in the internal reports reflected not an abuse of power, but rather an unfamiliarity by some agents with new protocols on intelligence investigations after the Sept. 11 attacks. Many agents were transferred to counterterrorism and national security investigations who had never worked on such cases before, and they were given new powers and procedures under both the Patriot Act and changes in Justice Department guidelines on how investigations should be handled.