Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, a friend and backer of President George W. Bush, gave the White House recommendations for appointment to a federal energy commission last spring. Bush eventually appointed two of the people on Enron's list.

Lay gave the list of names to Clay Johnson, Bush's personnel director, White House spokeswoman Anne Womack said Thursday. Among the eight or so names were Pat Wood, now chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Nora Brownell, a member of the commission.

"It was one of many, many recommendations that he (Johnson) received" from industry executives, members of Congress and state officials, Womack told The Associated Press.

Disclosure of Lay's recommendations to the White House came as congressional panels investigate the relationship between Houstonbased Enron Corp. and the Bush administration. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the company's complex accounting and the role played by its auditor, Arthur Andersen, which has acknowledged destroying Enron-related documents.

Lay disclose the list of Enron favourites in an interview being broadcast Friday on PBS TV's "NOW with Bill Moyers."

"I brought a list, we certainly presented a list . . . As I recall, I signed a letter which in fact had some recommendations as to people that we thought would be good (FERC) commissioners," Lay said in the interview, which was taped last

May but never aired.

Bush, as Texas governor, had appointed Wood in 1995 as head of the states Public Utilities commission. Wood has been an advocate of market-oriented regulation of utilities, a position espoused by Enron, a big, aggressive energy trader that had become a favourite of Wall Street.

Bush appointed Wood as FERC chairman in August, replacing Curt Hebert.

Hebert said in the PBS interview that Lay "has asked me to take certain positions but I've had those conversations with Ken Lay for a long time. And have disagreed with him for a long time."

Brownell, a member of Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission, was nominated by Bush in March. During her time on the state commission, Brownell helped oversee Pennsylvania's electricity deregulation.