SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - SOUTH Korea's presidential office accused ex-president Roh Moo-Hyun on Monday of keeping classified documents illegally at his private retirement home.

Mr Roh violated the law by possessing classifed records from his five-year tenure which ended in February, said presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan.

'This is a clear illegal activity,' he told reporters, accusing Mr Roh and aides of rejecting a request to return the data.

'We regard this case as very serious because original records are being kept' at Mr Roh's private home near the southern city of Busan, the spokesman said.

The office of new president Lee Myung-Bak will launch a probe into Mr Roh's activities, while the state archives will take action to confiscate the data, the spokesman said.

Yonhap news agency, quoting officials, said Mr Roh and his aides are accused of removing the original hard disk drives from the main servers in the presidential office.

In 2004, Mr Roh's aides established an intranet to electronically manage all documents from the office.

'There has been no response to our request that all data should be returned. We will take legal action if (Mr Roh) continues to reject our request,' a senior National Archives official said on condition of anonymity.

Mr Roh's aides issued a statement saying the former president keeps copies of data at home 'just for his reference'.

They expressed regret at the incident, saying they were in talks with Lee's office to solve the problem.

'Former president Roh is ready to return the data if he is allowed to gain access to the National Archives, which he cannot do now due to technical problems,' the statement said. -- AFP