SANTIAGO, Aug. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The Lower House of the Chilean Congress on Wednesday approved the creation of a commission to investigate Augusto Pinochet's secret accounts kept at a US bank.

    This decision was adopted at the end of a special session on Wednesday afternoon. The accounts of the retired general and his wife Lucia Hiriart kept at the Washington-based Riggs Bank have been under investigation.

    The commission will have 120 days to determine the Pinochet government's involvement in the privatization process and its impact on the concentration of wealth and money distribution.

    Also, the Lower House approved another project to send a parliamentary mission to the United States to collect information about the investigations made by the US Senate on Pinochet's secret accounts at Riggs Bank, which amounted to between 4 millionand 8 million US dollars.

    This project will also help work out laws on tax declarations and sanctions for illicit enrichment.

    Pinochet, 88, who took control of Chile by ousting constitutional President Allende in 1973, faces hundreds of charges of homicide, kidnapping and torture in Chile.

    There have been several failed attempts to probe his finances by journalists or lawmakers since the 1980s.

    The trial of Pinochet was suspended in 2001 when he was diagnosed with mild dementia. Enditem