Washington ? The FBI is investigating only about half the criminal cases it did before 9-11 because of its focus on stopping terrorist attacks.

Investigations of financial fraud, bank robberies and some drug cases have suffered as a result, but other federal agencies as well as state and local law enforcement have picked up the slack in most areas, Justice Department inspector general Glenn A. Fine said Monday.

The FBI did not immediately comment.

The decline in traditional criminal investigations was steepest in drug cases and extended to organized crime, bank robberies, civil rights, health care fraud, corporate fraud and public corruption, Fine said in a 194-page audit.

Among the FBI’s traditional criminal investigations, gang, obscenity and child pornography cases increased, Fine said. The report looked at cases opened and the deployment of agents in the 2000 government spending year – the last full year before the attacks – and in 2004.

The FBI opened 62,782 criminal investigations in 2000 and 34,451 last year, a drop of 45 percent, Fine said. Drug cases declined by 70 percent, he said.

There were 2,200 fewer field agents investigating criminal matters in 2004, he said.