Pete Yost, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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WASHINGTON - Wall Street institutions now being bailed out by the government spent millions underwriting the Democratic and Republican party conventions last summer, weeks before coming to Washington begging for multibillion-dollar handouts.

The big donors included AIG, Ford Motor Co., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Freddie Mac.

In all, major corporations, labour unions and individual millionaires dumped $118 million into the nominating conventions for Barack Obama and John McCain, according to reports from the Campaign Finance Institute and the Center for Responsive Politics. The private groups compiled the numbers from filings required under federal law.

Private financing of the national political conventions is among the last avenues for big-money interests to curry favour through large political contributions.

Congress banned other major donations to the political parties, known as "soft money," in a 2002 law that revamped campaign financing in response to concerns about undue influence and corruption.

Among the convention donors:

-American International Group Inc. gave $1.5 million, split between the Democratic convention in Denver and the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The government now is providing AIG a $150-billion financial-rescue package.

-Citigroup, receiving tens of billions in bailout funds, spent $600,000, including $250,000 for the Democratic convention.

-Goldman Sachs, recipient of $10 billion in bailout money, spent $505,000 on the political conventions, including $255,000 for the Republican gathering.

Individual donors included billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, whose fortune has been stung by the plight of Ford Motor Co. and an economic downturn that has damaged his other investments.

A foundation controlled by Kerkorian gave $2 million to the Republican convention and $1.5 million for the Democratic gathering.

Ford spent $200,000 on the conventions, divided evenly. Ford could benefit from the proposed auto industry bailout being worked out in Washington. Ford wants a $9 billion standby line of credit in case a competitor fails.

The Federal Election Commission has continued to allow large contributions to flow to local committees set up to host the political conventions, and those committees promise donors special access to party leaders.