``These documents are part of a voluntary review of US government files related to human rights abuses, terrorism and other acts of political violence prior to and during the Pinochet era in Chile,'' State Department spokesman James Foley said in a statement.

More than 25,000 pages of material from 5,800 documents were declassified, he said.

Some 5,000 of these documents come from the State Department, 490 from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 200 from the National Archives, 100 from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and 60 from the Defense Department.

``The process of review continues and additional documents from 1973 to 1978 will be released later this year, along with documents dated 1968 to 1973,'' Foley said.

The declassified documents are available to the public at the NationalArchives in College Park, Maryland. Materials released by the State Department were posted on the Internet at http://foia.state.gov.

Pinochet, 83, is currently under house arrest in London, where he faces an extradition trial to Spain in September on charges of terrorism and human rights abuses.