John McCain said Thursday he was "disappointed" with a New York Times report claiming that, eight years ago, his advisers became concerned over the Arizona senator's relationship with a female lobbyist.

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"I am very disappointed in the New York Times," McCain said. "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust."

The Times' report said that even the appearance of a close bond with Vicki Iseman, 40, had McCain's advisers worried. Iseman was attending fundraisers with McCain, 71, was often seen in his offices and in at least one occasion flew with him on one of her client's private jets, the Times said.

Staff members moved to block the woman's access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

The paper said the aides were concerned enough about McCain, 71, and his closeness to the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, that they sought to keep her away from the candidate's 2000 presidential campaign.

"I don't know if it happened at (the aides') level. It didn't happen with me," McCain said.

McCain and Iseman also denied they ever had had a romantic relationship, the Times reported.

"We think the story speaks for itself," Times executive editor Bill Keller said in a written statement Thursday. "On the timing, our policy is we publish stories when they are ready."

In late 1999, McCain twice wrote letters to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Florida-based Paxson Communications -- which had paid Iseman as its lobbyist -- urging quick consideration of a proposal to buy a television station license in Pittsburgh. At the time, Paxson's chief executive, Lowell W. "Bud" Paxson, also was a major contributor to McCain's 2000 presidential campaign.

McCain did not urge the FCC commissioners to approve the proposal, but he asked for speedy consideration of the deal, which was pending from two years earlier. In an unusual response, then-FCC Chairman William Kennard complained that McCain's request "comes at a sensitive time in the deliberative process" and "could have procedural and substantive impacts on the commission's deliberations and, thus, on the due process rights of the parties."

McCain wrote the letters after he received more than $20,000 in contributions from Paxson executives and lobbyists. Paxson also lent McCain his company's jet at least four times during 1999 for campaign travel.

"For months" the New York Times submitted questions about the matter that his campaign sought to answer, McCain said. He charged that the paper didn't include many of those answers.

McCain said he had one conversation with New York Times editor Bill Keller during the course of the paper's investigation, but said it was "not trying to disuade him in any way from doing the story."

McCain's remaining rival for the Republican nomination, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, called McCain "a good decent honorable man" and said he accepted McCain's response.

"I've campaigned now on the same stage or platform with John McCain for 14 months. I only know him to be a man of integrity," Huckabee said in Houston. "Today he denied any of that was true. I take him at his word. For me to get into it is completely immaterial."

Additional Resource:

• The New York Times