WASHINGTON -- Saudi Arabia scrambled over the weekend to defuse a new crisis in its relations with the United States after the disclosure of a money trail leading indirectly from the Saudi Embassy to a man who befriended two Sept. 11 hijackers.

Saudi sources acknowledged that the embassy; the ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan; and his wife, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, together provided about $130,000 in what they called charitable donations over a four-year period to Majida Ibrahim Ahmad al-Dweikat, who needed medical treatment.

At least one of the Saudi checks was signed over to the wife of Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi man then living in California who is suspected of welcoming and helping two men who later participated in the Sept. 11 hijackings.

During part of the four-year period, the money trail passed through an address in the 2200 block of Kentucky Ave. in Baltimore, where a friend of Majida Ibrahim Ahmad's, Vuthaina Chakrouf, forwarded the Saudi checks to San Diego.

A high-ranking Saudi official, Adel al-Jubeir, said in television interviews yesterday that it was "preposterous" and "outrageous" to suggest that Princess Haifa had any role in funding terrorism. The princess is the daughter of King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975.

"To think that Princess Haifa, whose father was murdered by a terrorist ... who's a mother, who's a grandmother, would write checks to people who give it to terrorists is crazy," he said on ABC's This Week.

But the revelation of the money trail, first reported by Newsweek magazine, prompted several American lawmakers yesterday to raise questions about Saudi Arabia's reliability. They called on the Bush administration to conduct a full investigation of any possible links to terrorism.

"This administration ought to be demanding a full public accounting by the FBI and the CIA about what they know about Saudi involvement," Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Democrat from Connecticut, said on CBS' Face the Nation.

The close, decades-long U.S.-Saudi relationship has come under a microscope since it became known that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudi citizens.

Saudi officials said yesterday that they were making every effort to unearth all the facts in the latest case, including going through all of Princess Haifa's charitable payments for a number of years. The government and the princess would cooperate with American investigators, they said, although they had received inquiries only from the news media, not law enforcement officials.

Embassy sources described the four years of payments as typical of the kind of charity that members of the royal family routinely perform. Prince Bandar and Princess Haifa get numerous requests from needy Saudis living in the United States, they said.

Princess Haifa first received a letter in April 1998 from Majida Ibrahim Ahmad's husband, Osama Basnan, a Saudi, who said his family sorely needed help to pay for medical treatment of his wife's thyroid condition. Basnan also befriended the two hijackers and was known as a vocal al-Qaida sympathizer, Newsweek reported.

A $15,000 check from Prince Bandar was sent to the family, embassy officials said. Toward the end of 1998, Majida Ibrahim Ahmad, who is a Jordanian, wrote to Princess Haifa seeking help. In response, the embassy officials said, the ambassador's wife instructed Riggs Bank in Washington to send monthly cashier's checks worth $2,000 to the woman. Officials told the Los Angeles Times that the princess maintains an account at the bank.

In 2000, the embassy paid $20,000 to cover the costs of a thyroid operation for Majida Ibrahim Ahmad performed at a University of California hospital in San Diego, the officials said.

When the payments started, Majida Ibrahim Ahmad and her family were living in Virginia; they later moved to California.

This is where Vuthaina Chakrouf of Baltimore entered the picture. When Majida Ibrahim Ahmad left Virginia, she notified the Saudi Embassy to start sending the checks to the Kentucky Avenue address.

Chakrouf, an American citizen who became friends with Majida Ibrahim Ahmad while a nursing student in their native Jordan, agreed to forward the checks to San Diego. She said she never opened the envelopes but put them into new envelopes addressed to her friend in California.

"She asked me if she could use my address. She needed someone to send the money there," Chakrouf recounted in a telephone interview yesterday. She said Majida Ibrahim Ahmad expressed fear that the Saudi government would stop the payments if officials knew she had moved to California. But Chakrouf didn't say why Majida Ibrahim Ahmad thought that.

From Chakrouf's account, her friend truly was in need of financial help. "She had no insurance. She had a problem with her neck, which was very, very swollen, and she had six kids to take care of.

"She's really poor. She doesn't have income. She was using government medical assistance and food stamps," Chakrouf said, describing Majida Ibrahim Ahmad as "a very good person. She had no intention [of causing] any kind of problems with anything."

Chakrouf expressed devotion to the United States. The attacks, she said, were committed by people who were "not human beings," she said. "I love America. I do not want any connection with anyone who would do something wrong."

Embassy sources said the payments stopped in May, although they said it was unclear why. They said about half the checks reviewed by Princess Haifa's bank over the weekend appeared to have been signed over to other people after Majida Ibrahim Ahmad got them, including her husband, Basnan; Janet Basnan, who may be a daughter, The Los Angeles Times reported; and al-Bayoumi's wife, who received at least one.

Omar al-Bayoumi is described by Newsweek as having befriended two hijackers, Nawaq Alhamzi and Khalid al-Midhar, when they arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at the beginning of 2000. He threw a welcoming party for them and arranged for them to get an apartment next to his, paying $1,550 to cover the first two months' rent, according to Newsweek.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the hijackers reimbursed the rent money in cash the same day.

Saudi officials questioned yesterday whether either al-Bayoumi or Basnan was seriously suspected by the United States of helping to finance terrorism. Both men are now believed to be in Saudi Arabia. Basnan was deported Nov. 17.

If the men were highly suspected, the officials asked, why did the FBI allow them to leave the country? Saudi officials said their government would consider any request by American investigators to interview the two in the kingdom.

Majida Ibrahim Ahmad was deported two weeks before Basnan, after being detained for failure to have a visa, Saudi officials said.