COLUMBUS • Mr Michael Bloomberg has said he is now willing to release women from three non-disclosure agreements (NDA) related to offensive comments they say he made - after refusing to do so at last Wednesday's Democratic presidential debate.

"Bloomberg LP has identified three NDAs signed over the past 30-plus years with women to address complaints about comments they said I had made. If any of them want to be released from their NDAs, they should contact the company and they'll be given a release," Mr Bloomberg tweeted on Friday.

Bloomberg campaign spokesman Tim O'Brien said the three NDAs were the only ones that "involved Mike Bloomberg directly" and that other NDAs would not be lifted because "other people were involved" in those cases.

Mr Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. One of the NDAs concerns a woman named Ms Sekiko Sakai Garrison, who filed a complaint in 1995 alleging that Mr Bloomberg told her to "kill it" when she told him she was pregnant, the Associated Press reported and a senior campaign aide confirmed.

Ms Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic rivals criticised him for his refusal to release former employees from NDAs that would allow them to publicly discuss their allegations against him.

Ms Warren said on Friday that Mr Bloomberg's announcement was insufficient and might not account for all the cases.

"That's just not good enough. Michael Bloomberg needs to do a blanket release, so that all women who have been muzzled by non-disclosure agreements can step up and tell their side of the story," she told reporters in Las Vegas.

"If there are only three, then why didn't he sign a blanket release? If he's limiting the number, then you can't know whether there are three, or 30, or 300. And that should not be in the control of Michael Bloomberg," she added.

BLOOMBERG