By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria (April 29, 2001 7:54 p.m. EDT) - Kurt Waldheim, whose term as Austrian president was clouded by allegations he hid a Nazi past, said Sunday that newly released CIA files "prove that the accusations have no substance whatsoever."

Waldheim, the U.N. secretary-general from 1972 to 1982, was elected president in 1986 and held the post until 1992. He benefited in the election from a backlash of public support, occasionally tinged with anti-Semitic sentiments, after foreign criticism of revelations that he had lied about his wartime service in the Balkans as an intelligence officer for the German Wehrmacht.

Waldheim, 82, has been barred from entering the U.S. since April 1987, following an investigation of his wartime activities. U.S. law prohibits admission of anyone who participated in World War II persecution.

Insisting he was wrongfully targeted by the media, the U.S. government and the World Jewish Congress, Waldheim refused to step down as president but declined to run for a second term because of the continuing controversy.

In a statement issued Sunday to the Austria Press Agency, Waldheim said CIA files made public Friday "prove that the accusations against me have no substance whatsoever - and thus have vanished into thin air."

He did not elaborate. The files provided little new information on Waldheim and dealt primarily with his activities in the immediate years after World War II. Officials said he had not been among CIA sources, as had been suspected by some historians.

Separately, Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the CIA files showed that the accusations against the former president were "baseless and unjust."

Waldheim's refusal to step down as president ushered in an unprecedented period of isolation for Austria.

The European Union last year imposed temporary sanctions on Austria to protest participation of Joerg Haider's right-wing Freedom Party in government because of its anti-foreigner stance and past Haider comments praising aspects of the Hitler era.

But even the sanctions did not hurt Austria as much as Waldheim's tenure did. Foreign leaders largely shunned the country to avoid meeting him.

An international commission of historians, in a 1988 report, presented no evidence to back allegations Waldheim had committed atrocities as a Wehrmacht officer.

But it said he was "in close proximity" to some Nazi atrocities, knew they were going on and made no attempt to stop them. It said he concealed his service and tried to make it seem harmless once he could no longer hide it.

Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, a move welcomed by a majority of Austrians.