Undercover New York City police, apparently acting partially in response to the September 11 attacks, conducted covert observations across the United States and in Europe of people planning protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention, the New York Times said.

The newspaper said in Sunday's edition that records indicated the "R.N.C. Intelligence Squad" attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or activists, to glean information on people or groups intending to disrupt the convention.

But hundreds of reports, stamped "N.Y.P.D. Secret", indicated that church groups, theater companies and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists, anti-death penalty activists and others opposed to globalization, were all surveyed and included in the files, the Times said.

Intelligence on apparently lawful activities was also shared with police departments in other cities, it said.

"Detectives collected information both in-state and out-of-state to learn in advance what was coming our way," the Times quoted the NYPD's chief spokesman Paul Browne as saying, and adding "All our activities were legal."

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who took the post in January 2002 after the September 11 attacks, "took the position that the NYPD could no longer rely on the federal government alone, and that the department had to build an intelligence capacity worthy of the name," Browne told the Times.

David Cohen, the deputy police commissioner for intelligence and a former CIA official, said the long period of preparation by a sleeper cell for an act of terrorism requires the department's entire resources "be available to conduct investigations into political activity and intelligence-related issues," he wrote in a 2002 affidavit.

According to the newspaper, the city's police department applied newly ramped-up intelligence resources aimed at fighting terrorism to a different context -- that of gathering information on people joining political protests.

But the bulk of hundreds of reports dating back to 2003 reviewed by the Times pertained to people with no clear intention of breaking any laws, the Times said.

Federal lawsuits have been brought over mass arrests made at the time, with lawyers slated to begin depositions next week of Cohen.