Israel's Mossad spy agency may be given formal legal footing, a Justice Ministry spokesman said on April 2, reflecting growing openness in Israel's once notoriously clandestine secret service.

Ministry spokesman Amir Abramovitz said Justice Minister Yossi Beilin was considering the idea.

"There is such a thought in the ministry and the minister doesn't exclude the possibility of legalizing the role of the Mossad. The idea is to have a specific and a clear role for it that doesn't exist right now," Abramovitz said.

The Mossad, which gathers intelligence outside Israel and conducts "special operations" abroad, lacks a formal operational framework and has historically acted independently. Until recently it was entirely shrouded in secrecy.

In recent years it has begun making public the name of its chief. It has also courted domestic and international opinion after a series of embarrassing setbacks tarnished its image and that of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security service.

Israel's parliament is considering a bill designed to formalize the role of the Shin Bet, Abramowitz said.

Last year, an Israeli court convicted an ex-Mossad intelligence official for fabricating reports on Syria. In 1998, Mossad agents were caught by Swiss security force trying to wiretap a suspect.

In 1998, an official inquiry into a botched Israel assassination bid on an Islamic militant leader in Jordan found structural flaws in the Mossad which is best famed for its 1960 kidnapping in Argentina of Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann.

"If something is clear and everyone knows what are the borders or the powers, what is right and what is wrong, where is the red line and borders of the Shabak [Shin Bet] and the Mossad, it can help to clarify the situation," Abramovitz said.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the proposal sought to establish the aims of the organization, its criminal responsibility and to formalize its methods of investigation. It said Mossad head Efraim Halevy was aware of the proposal.

Last year, Israel's Supreme Court barred the Shin Bet from using moderate physical pressure on Palestinian detainees that human rights groups said amounted to torture.Reuters