WASHINGTON (AP) – Journalists were not told what to write when they were assigned articles about Europe for Pentagon-run Web sites, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.

The practice is now under review by the military’s chief investigator.

“I’m told that in this case, people were just asked to prepare anything,” Rumsfeld said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

“They weren’t told what to write, it had nothing to do with an agenda. They were asked to take a subject, and if they wanted to, write something on it, which people do all the time,” Rumsfeld said.

Inspector General Joseph Schmitz is reviewing the military’s practice of paying journalists to provide articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans, Larry Di Rita, Rumsfeld’s chief spokesman, said Friday.

The investigation followed a CNN report on the Pentagon’s role in two Web sites: Southeast European Times, aimed at audiences in the Balkans; and Magharebia, aimed at the Maghreb region of North Africa that encompasses Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

Columnists have come under criticism for writing articles and providing other material to promote Bush administration policies. After the agreements between the columnists and federal departments became known, President Bush said the administration must not pay commentators “to advance our agenda.”

In a light moment on ABC’s “This Week,” moderator George Stephanopoulos told Rumsfeld he was among journalists invited to meet with Bush the day of the State of the Union address.

“You didn’t get paid, did you?” Rumsfeld asked, smiling.

“Not for that, no, sir,” Stephanopoulos said.

“I just wanted to check,” Rumsfeld said and laughed. “I wanted to make sure everything’s all right here.”