Hsieh and the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MOJIB), the agency he allegedly worked for as an informant, both dismissed the allegations made by Next magazine.

Next claimed that from 1980-1988 Hsieh received cash and expensive gifts from MOJIB in return for spying on "Tang Wai," the popular name for the then pro-democracy opposition camp, in which he held a prominent role while Taiwan was still under martial law.

According to the tabloid magazine's allegations in its latest issue, Hsieh was a member of the Taipei City Council when he started collecting intelligence, which the MOJIB called "Project Kuang Hua."

The government was anxious to gather insider information on Tang Wai after the infamous 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, in which several opposition leaders were tried on sedition charges.

Hsieh was part of the team of attorneys who defended the opposition leaders.

The magazine said Hseih was recruited by a MOJIB agent who was a former classmate of his at a vocational school in Taipei.

The magazine said there were five MOJIB agents on the Project Kuang Hua task force, which met with Hsieh once every month.

"This is rivals' election tactics," Hsieh was cited by the United Evening News as saying in response to the magazine's allegations.

He said that last year when he was running in the DPP presidential primary, the same magazine alleged that he was involved in corruption.

But eight months on, he has not been charged with anything by prosecutors, he said.

He said during the martial law era, intelligence units, including the fearsome Taiwan Garrison Command and the MOJIB, made every attempt to prevent Tang Wai from forming into a political party or arranging street protests."The fact is we've established a party successfully," Hsieh said, referring to the DPP.

He claimed that he was the one who proposed that Tang Wai form a political party, and for that he was eventually prosecuted and sentenced.

The MOJIB, in a press statement, denied that Hsieh had ever worked as its informant as alleged by the magazine.

It claimed it had dug into its archives but failed to find anything about the so-called Project Kuang Hua.

It said the only time that Hsieh had worked for the MOJIB was as an unpaid adviser on an anti-corruption committee from November 1992 to October 1993, during which he was a member of the legislative justice committee.

A former MOJIB agent, Hsieh Yu-nan, who is said to have recruited the then opposition leader, admitted that he and Frank Hseih had frequent contacts at the time in private capacities.

Hiseh Yu-nan said he simply wanted to learn more about the thoughts and views of the opposition camp, and reiterated there was never a Project Kuang Hua or any money involved.

But Hsieh Yu-nan, who now heads the assets declaration department under the watchdog Control Yuan, said he could not remember the details of his meetings with the DPP candidate.

He said he seldom contacted the DPP leader after leaving the MOJIB.

The DPP candidate's campaign spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said the Next magazine was recycling old allegations previously played out.

He was referring to a libel case the DPP candidate had filed against a radio broadcaster who claimed that Hsieh was a MOJIB agent.

The high court returned a verdict saying there was no proof that Hsieh had served as an informant for the MOJIB.

Cheng said during the years under martial law, which ended in 1987, anyone who had a casual chat over a cup of coffee with MOJIB personnel could often see their conversations exaggerated by the intelligence unit as major information.

The spokesman dismissed the Next allegations as typical election smearing that would have no damaging effect on Hsieh's campaign.