US Republican Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska was convicted yesterday on corruption charges.

A 12-member federal jury unanimously found Stevens, 84, guilty on all seven counts of felony charges related to lying about free home renovations and other gifts he received from a wealthy oil contractor.

The longest-serving Republican senator now faces up to five years in prison on each count when he is sentenced Jan. 26, next year.

But under federal sentencing guidelines, Stevens is likely to receive much less prison time, if any.

He now becomes the first sitting US senator convicted of a felony since 1981.

Stevens' conviction will likely boost the Democratic Party's chance of winning a Alaska Senate seat for the first time in past three decades.

His highest-profile conviction followed a four-year federal investigation.

Jurors found that Stevens willfully filed false financial disclosure forms that hid such gifts as renovations that doubled his home in size.

Those gifts, valued at as much as US$250,000 over seven years, came mostly from his former friend Bill Allen, the star prosecution witness in Stevens' trial and the former owner of Veco Corp..

The oilfield-services company was one of Alaska's largest private employers before Allen, caught up in the federal corruption probe, was forced to sell it last year.

Pending the Nov. 4 congressional elections, voters will decide whether Stevens, who has represented the state in the US Senate since 1968 and before that helped usher in statehood for Alaska, should continue to serve as their senator.

For the first time in his career, the senator faces a competitive re-election fight, against Democratic Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

Stevens, who was indicted in late July, sought an early trial date, gambling he would face voters as an innocent man.

Even without the conviction, though, to re-elect Stevens, voters would have to overlook four weeks of testimony that exposed some of the senator's innermost financial and personal secrets.

The conviction will complicate not only his re-election bid but also the remainder of his term in the Senate.

His colleagues have the option -- never actually exercised -- of voting to expel him before his term ends in January.

Four U.S. senators have been convicted of crimes but none has received a presidential pardon.

The Justice Department has charged 11 people, including Stevens, in connection with its corruption probe in Alaska, including five former and current state legislators in Alaska.

Among the 10 people besides Stevens, five pleaded guilty, three were convicted by juries in Alaska, and two await trial.

Some legal experts said Stevens may still has a chance to win the case because of some prosecutorial mistakes during the trial.