US war general not accused of affair: Pentagon source

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The sheer volume of emails sent by General John Allen to a Tampa socialite "may be inappropriate" but does not constitute proof of an affair, a senior US military officer said on Tuesday.

Gen Allen, the US commander in Afghanistan, "strongly denies" having had a relationship with 37-year-old Jill Kelley - a key figure in the scandal that brought down Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief David Petraeus - according to the Washington Post.

According to the daily, which cited a senior US official, Gen Allen exchanged "a few hundred emails" with Mrs Kelley over the years when he was deputy commander of US Central Command in Tampa, Florida and she was organising local parties.

In the emails, he called her "sweatheart", a common term of endearment in his native Virginia, but the pair did not have a romantic connection, the official told the Post, speaking on condition of anonymity.