U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert spoke publicly Thursday about the page scandal, denying any knowledge of a Florida congressman's explicit e-mails to teenaged government employees, but adding, "The buck stops here."

The veteran Republican politician appeared before reporters in Illinois to answer questions about what, if any, role he played in the Mark Foley affair.

U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois speaks in support of fellow Republican Van Taylor's run for Congress, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2006, at Taylor's campaign headquarters in Waco, Texas.
(Jerry Larson/Associated Press)

Foley, a fellow Republican congressman, resigned late last week after e-mails and instant messages surfaced in which he asked teenaged male pages explicit questions and requested photographs of them.

A former House aide was quoted Wednesday as saying he told staff in the Speaker's office about concerns over Foley's conduct more than three years ago.

"I'm deeply sorry that this has happened, and the bottom line is that we are taking responsibility," Hastert said Thursday, less than an hour after the House ethics committee launched an investigation into who might have known about Foley's actions before the story broke.

'Republicans dealt with it immediately and the culprit was gone."-House Speaker Dennis Hastert

"I first of all learned about this last Friday," Hastert said, clarifying, "That's the first time that I learned of the explicit language [in the e-mails]."

The scandal has cast a shadow on the Republicans' chances in the November round of congressional elections, so the party is endeavouring to show it is taking the situation seriously.

"Republicans dealt with it immediately and the culprit was gone," Hastert said Thursday.

"Ultimately … the buck stops here."

But a short time later, he suggested other people will in the end take the blame for the mess.

"I don't know who knew what when," he said. "We knew that there are reports of people who knew it and may have fed it out or leaked it to the press, and that's why we've announced an investigation."

As part of his statement, Hastert announced a toll-free number that Americans could call to suggest ways of making sure young pages are free from harassment or other forms of ill treatment by politicians or government officials.

"Our children need to be protected and we're going to do everything that we can to protect them," he said.