ANCHORAGE (Alaska) - GOVERNOR Sarah Palin's chief of staff authorised ex-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to travel to Washington, although the governor has cited that trip as a primary example of the insubordination that led to Mr Monegan's firing.

Mr Monegan is the central figure in the investigation into whether Mrs Palin abused her power when she fired him. Mr Monegan alleges he was fired because he refused to terminate a state trooper who was involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister.

Mrs Palin says he was fired because of insubordination on budget issues.

A legislative committee voted July 24 to investigate the dispute, and Mrs Palin initially welcomed it. But after she was picked as Senator John McCain's running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, she reversed herself.

The campaign sent a team of operatives to Alaska to carefully coordinate any information that is released.

The investigation will be finished before the election, despite refusals by key witnesses to testify, including the governor's husband, the legislator heading the probe said on Friday.

After waiting 35 minutes for Todd Palin and two state administrative employees to appear under subpoena before the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Hollis French condemned their refusal to testify and the attorney general's broken promise that seven other witnesses would testify who were not subpoenaed.

Ms French said the retired prosecutor hired by the Alaska Legislature to investigate Mrs Palin, Mr Stephen Branchflower, will conclude his investigation by Oct 10. Sarah Palin's allies hoped the investigation would be delayed past the election to spare her any troublesome revelations - or at least the distraction - before voters have made their choice.

Mrs Palin's reputation as clean-government advocate who takes on entrenched interests is central to her appeal as Mr McCain's running mate, and possibly at risk in the probe.

The McCain campaign said there are concerns about the effect of political influence on the Legislature's inquiry and Mrs Palin will provide any information needed to a separate investigation by the Alaska State Personnel Board.

Mrs Palin fired Mr Monegan in July. It later emerged that Mrs Palin, her husband and several high-level staffers had contacted Mr Monegan about state trooper Mike Wooten.

Mrs Palin maintains she fired Mr Monegan over budget disagreements.

The campaign has released a series of e-mails detailing the frustration several Palin administration officials experienced in dealing with Mr Monegan. The 'last straw', the campaign said, was a trip Mr Monegan planned to Washington in July to seek federal money for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases.

In a July 7 e-mail, Mr John Katz, the governor's special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: the governor hadn't agreed the money should be sought, and the request 'is out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Sen Stevens'.

But a travel authorisation document signed by Palin Chief of Staff Mike Nizich on June 18 approves Mr Monegan's trip to Washington for the purpose of meeting Sen Lisa Murkowski.

The document's existence was first reported by ABC News on Friday.

Mr Monegan told ABC that the travel authorisation was explicitly to pursue funding for the anti-sexual-violence programme, but the document does not give that as a reason for the trip.

Mr Monegan did not immediately return a message left at his Anchorage home.

McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin said on Friday that the travel authorisation was for a routine trip and that state commissioners regularly travel to meet members of Alaska's congressional delegation.

'He was not authorised to lobby Congress,' Mr Griffin said. -- AP