WASHINGTON - Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday became the first leader of the House of Representatives in a decade to testify before its ethics committee, fielding hours of questions about what he knew about former Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate approaches to teenage pages and when he knew it.

Hastert has faced increasing questions about whether he and other party leaders ignored or covered up evidence of Foley's improper behavior.

"I answered all the questions they asked to the best of my ability," the Illinois Republican said after more than 2 1/2 hours before the committee. "I also said that they needed to move quickly to get to the bottom of this issue, including who knew about the sexually explicit messages and when they knew about it."

At least two Republican leaders -- Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, who is leading the party's House re-election effort, and House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio -- have said that they told Hastert last year that they were concerned about Foley's behavior after they learned about "overly friendly" e-mails that Foley, a Florida Republican, sent to one former page.

Hastert has said that he does not recall those conversations, but he does not dispute that he may have forgotten them. He has repeatedly hinted that others who knew about the e-mails did not come forward.

He said Tuesday that he told the panel members "they needed to make sure that they asked all the questions of everybody."

The committee is investigating whether any House member or staffer knew of Foley's improper behavior and failed to do anything about it. It has no authority over Foley, who resigned from the House on Sept. 29 -- the day that ABC News released the text of an sexually explicit instant-message exchange with another former page that was far more graphic than the e-mails.

The Foley scandal has put congressional Republican leaders on the defensive just two weeks before an election in which Democrats have their best chance in years of gaining a majority in the House or the Senate -- or both.

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