WASHINGTON • United States President Donald Trump yesterday accused former president Barack Obama of wiretapping him last October, during the late stages of the presidential election campaign, although he offered no evidence to support the allegation.

"How low has (former) president Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!," Trump said in a series of tweets yesterday.

Mr Obama's office did not reply to a Reuters request for comments.

In one of the tweets, Mr Trump said the alleged wiretapping took place in his Trump Tower skyscraper in New York.

"I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that (former) president Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to election!" Mr Trump wrote.

"Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" he wrote in another tweet.

Mr Trump's administration has come under pressure from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional investigations into contacts between some members of his campaign team and Russian officials during the campaign period.

Mr Obama imposed sanctions on Russia and ordered Russian diplomats to leave the US last December, over the country's alleged involvement in hacking political groups in the Nov 8 US presidential election.

Mr Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned last month after revelations that he had discussed US sanctions on Russia with the Russian Ambassador to the US before Mr Trump took office.

Mr Flynn had promised Vice-President Mike Pence that he had not discussed US sanctions with the Russians, but transcripts of intercepted communications, described by US officials, showed that the subject had come up in conversations between him and the Russian Ambassador.

REUTERS