"We are planning to check indications and information that the extreme metereological phenomena experienced in July and August 2005 were caused by human technology controlled from abroad," Dan Carlan told AFP.

Carlan, who initiated the probe, said officials in the agriculture ministry had suggested that unusually heavy rain that fell in eastern Romania last year resulted from "a pattern of humidity directed from the Black Sea towards this region."

But ministry spokesman Adrian Tibu said the senators had got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

"They have mistakenly interpreted the remarks of our experts, who in no way talked of such a possibility," he said.

Extreme right leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor said however he was convinced that Romania was "the victim of a metereological attack."

He refused to point the finger directly at any country, but his mention of "a great power east of Romania which is increasingly annoyed by Bucharest's policies on the Black Sea region" was a clear reference to Russia.

The country's worst floods in 30 years killed 80 people and caused some 1.5 billion euros (1.8 billion dollars) in damage.

This year has been little better, with torrential rain leaving nine dead and six missing in the past two weeks. Devastating floods in April left 16,000 people homeless in southern Romania when dikes along the Danube gave way.

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