The top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen John Allen, is being investigated for allegedly sending "inappropriate emails" to a woman at the centre of a scandal which ended the career of CIA head Gen David Petraeus, officials say. The emails are said to have been sent to Jill Kelley whose complaint led the FBI to uncover Gen Petraeus's extra-marital affair with Paula Broadwell. Gen Allen denies any wrongdoing. His nomination to be Nato's top Europe chief is on hold, the White House says. Gen Allen's pending nomination has been suspended at the request of Defence Secretary Leon Panetta pending the investigation, and President Barack Obama had agreed to the postponement, it said in a statement. Gen Allen had been due to appear at confirmation hearings to become Nato's Supreme Allied Commander Europe. David Petraeus resigned on Friday as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over his affair with Mrs Broadwell. Mr Panetta has said in a statement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday. Mr Panetta ordered a Pentagon investigation of Gen Allen on Monday, and has encouraged the Senate to act quickly on approving Gen Allen's successor in Afghanistan, Gen Joseph Dunford. Gen Allen was due to face a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. If approved, as had been widely expected, he was expected to take up his Nato appointment, heading the Nato-led International Security Assistance Forces (Isaf), in early 2013. Mr Panetta praised the general's work in Afghanistan, saying "his leadership has been instrumental in achieving the significant progress that Isaf, working alongside our Afghan partners, has made in bringing greater security to the Afghan people and in ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists" FBI briefing Gen Allen is said to have sent the emails to Mrs Kelley, a married woman from Tampa, Florida. Mrs Kelley had already been named in the Petraeus scandal after she told the FBI early in the summer she had received anonymous harassing emails. When the FBI investigated, it traced the emails to Paula Broadwell, bringing to light her affair with Gen Petraeus. Late on Monday, the FBI carried out a search of Mrs Broadwell's home. Mr Panetta has criticised the FBI for not informing members of US Congressional intelligence committees of its investigation. "As a former director of the CIA, and having worked very closely with the intelligence committees, I believe that there is a responsibility to make sure that the intelligence committees are informed of issues that could affect the security of those intelligence operations," he said. FBI officials are scheduled to brief the Senate and House intelligence committees on Tuesday about the case. Email exchanges Mrs Kelley has been described as a volunteer with wounded veterans and military families at the MacDill Air Force Base based in Tampa, Florida, which is headquarters of the US Central Command. She is a family friend of Gen Petraeus, but there is no suggestion that they were having an affair. A senior Pentagon official said up to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Gen Allen's communications with Mrs Kelley between 2010 and 2012 were under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorised disclosures of classified information, the Associated Press news agency reports. Gen Allen, a four-star Marine general, succeeded Gen Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011. He was deputy commander of Central Command before taking over in Afghanistan. He is also a veteran of the Iraq war. Gen Petraeus's affair with Mrs Broadwell, who co-authored a biography of the general, began following his retirement from the army and about two months after he became director of the CIA. He said it ended about four months ago. Gen Petraeus joined the CIA in September 2011 after heading international forces in Iraq and later in Afghanistan. The BBC's Bilal Sarwary, in Kabul, says the scandal is making headlines and has shocked many people in Afghanistan, where Gen Allen had built good relations with leaders and commanders. Some Afghan officials are asking how he found time to write thousands of emails when he was in charge of running a war, our correspondent says
