with pay pending the outcome of an internal company probe into allegations that executives at Texaco destroyed documents on minority hiring.

The announcement, carried by the Associated Press, came after chairman Peter Bijur publicly apologised for racist statements made during a conversation between top Texaco executives relating to a discrimination law suit.

David Keough, chief financial officer at Bermuda-based Texaco subsidiary Heddington, was one of two executives suspended yesterday. At the time the conversation was taped, he was assistant treasurer of Texaco.

Mr. Keough, who moved to Heddington last April or May, could not be reached for comment last night.

Mr. Bijur also confirmed that the company had received criminal subpoenas from a federal grand jury investigating whether the executives destroyed documents on minority hiring.

Asked if the documents were shredded, Bijur said his legal team was "in the process of securing'' them.

"I want to offer an apology to our fellow employees who were rightly offended by these statements and to people throughout America and elsewhere around the world,'' Bijur said during a news conference.

He also outlined a series of steps to review company policies on discrimination and better educate workers.

The racist statements were caught on cassette tapes made in 1994 by an executive, Richard Lundwall, who attended meetings of the company's finance department. After Mr. Lundwall's position was eliminated, he retired, then later turned the tapes over to a lawyer suing Texaco for discrimination.

Mr. Lundwall and others at the meetings referred to black employees as "niggers'' and "black jelly beans,'' mocked Kwanza and Hanukkah celebrations and discussed destroying the documents on minority hiring, according to court papers in the class-action discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of 1,500 black Texaco workers.

Mr. Keough is not heard on the tapes to make any racist remarks.

The tapes came to light Monday, but Mr. Bijur said he did not have "audible versions of the tapes'' until yesterday. Once he heard them, he said, he immediately suspended the two executives who had attended the meetings and are still employed by the company, Peter Meade and Mr. Keough.