Smash hit

Ms Onyango was instructed to leave the United States by a US immgration judge who denied her asylum request.

Her refusal to leave the country would be an administrative, non-criminal violation of immigration law, handled outside the criminal court system.

Her case, however, has prompted an unusual nationwide directive inside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency requiring that any deportations before the presidential election on Tuesday be approved at least at the level of a regional director, an official told AP.

The directive is seen as a sign that the Bush Administrative is aware of the political sensitivity of a possible deportation before the election.

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Ms Onyango contributed $260 to her nephew's campaign, apparently in numerous small amounts. The Boston Globe reported that she made three donations of just $5 and two more of $25.

Interviewed outside her council flat on Tuesday, she seemed surprised to learn that campaign contributions in the United States were public record. Asked about the contribution, she asked: "How do you know that?".

Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission, said individual campaign donors had to be US citizens.

"The responsibility is the campaign's to ensure the funds they receive are from permissable sources in appropriate amounts," he said.

"In the process of collecting the contribution, they have to inform people what the rules and ask for some confirmation from the donor they are qualified to make the contribution.

"Anyone who thinks the law has been violated is free to file a complaint, and we would look into that complaint."

Obama's campaign said Onyango visited the family in Chicago on a tourist visa at Obama's invitation about nine years ago, stopping to visit friends on the East coast before returning to Kenya.

She attended Obama's swearing-in to the US Senate in 2004, but campaign officials said Obama provided no assistance in getting her a tourist visa and he does not know the details of her stay.

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