Top US commander in Afghanistan Gen John Allen is being investigated for allegedly sending "inappropriate emails" to a woman at the centre of a scandal ending the career of CIA head Gen David Petraeus, officials say.
The emails are said to have been sent to Jill Kelley whose complaint led the FBI to uncover Gen Petraeus's extra-marital affair with Paula Broadwell.
Gen Allen denies any wrongdoing.
He was to face confirmation hearings to become Nato's top commander in Europe.
David Petraeus resigned on Friday as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over his affair with Mrs Broadwell.
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said in a statement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.
Gen Allen will remain in his job, but Mr Panetta said he had asked for the general's pending nomination as Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe to be delayed.
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The BBC's Jane Little says FBI agents have searched the home of Paula Broadwell
President Barack Obama had agreed to the postponement, the statement said.
Mr Panetta ordered a Pentagon investigation of Gen Allen on Monday, and said he requested that the US Senate Armed Services Committee move promptly on the nomination for Gen Allen's successor in Afghanistan, Gen Joseph Dunford.
Gen Allen was due to face a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. If approved, as had been widely expected, he was expected to take up his Nato appointment in early 2013.
Mr Panetta praised the general's work in Afghanistan, saying "his leadership has been instrumental in achieving the significant progress that Isaf, working alongside our Afghan partners, has made in bringing greater security to the Afghan people and in ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists".
Gen Petraeus had been due to testify before a closed-door congressional committee meeting about the 11 September 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.
Acting CIA director Michael Morell will testify in his place later on Tuesday, although Gen Petraeus may be called at a later date.
Petraeus-Allen scandal
- Early summer - Jill Kelley complains to FBI friend of harassing emails - government official
- Late summer - FBI establish emails come from Paula Broadwell, and that she has had an affair with David Petraeus - government official
- 21 Oct - FBI interview Ms Broadwell - government official
- 22-29 Oct - FBI interview Gen Petraeus - FBI official
- 6 Nov - FBI inform James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, of Petraeus affair. Mr Clapper speaks to Gen Petraeus
- 7 Nov - Mr Clapper informs White House
- 8 Nov - White House informs President Obama. He speaks to Gen Petraeus
- 9 Nov - President Obama accepts Gen Petraeus' resignation. Congressional committees informed
- 12 Nov - FBI searches Mrs Broadwell's home
Gen Allen is said to have sent the emails to Mrs Kelley, a married woman from Tampa, Florida.
Mrs Kelley had already been named in the Petraeus scandal after she told the FBI early in the summer she had received anonymous harassing emails.
When the FBI investigated, it traced the emails to Paula Broadwell, bringing to light her affair with Gen Petraeus.
Late on Monday, the FBI carried out a search of Mrs Broadwell's home.
Mr Panetta has criticised the FBI for not informing members of US Congressional intelligence committees of its investigation.
"As a former director of the CIA, and having worked very closely with the intelligence committees, I believe that there is a responsibility to make sure that the intelligence committees are informed of issues that could affect the security of those intelligence operations," he said.
FBI officials are scheduled to brief the Senate and House intelligence committees on Tuesday about the case.
Email exchangesUS media reacts
The New York Times writes: "Commentators have questioned whether the bureau would ordinarily investigate a citizen complaint about unwanted emails, suggesting that there must have been a hidden motive, possibly political, to take action."
"Aides were stunned," the Washington Post reports, "by the close access that Broadwell was granted - and that she occasionally flaunted".
"The director of the CIA has resigned over an extra-marital affair two days after a presidential election in which the agency's role in Libya was of burning concern - what is really going on here?" asks the New Yorker.
"Gen Petraeus [is] not just another philandering politician or celebrity cheater, like so many others whose indiscretions have come to light in recent years," says USA Today.
Mrs Kelley has been described as a volunteer with wounded veterans and military families at the MacDill Air Force Base based in Tampa, Florida, which is headquarters of the US Central Command.
She is a family friend of Gen Petraeus, but there is no suggestion that they were having an affair.
A senior Pentagon official said up to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Gen Allen's communications with Mrs Kelley between 2010 and 2012 were under review.
He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorised disclosures of classified information, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Gen Allen, a four-star Marine general, succeeded Gen Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.
He was deputy commander of Central Command before taking over in Afghanistan. He is also a veteran of the Iraq war.
Gen Petraeus's affair with Mrs Broadwell, who co-authored a biography of the general, began following his retirement from the army and about two months after he became director of the CIA. He said it ended about four months ago.
Gen Petraeus joined the CIA in September 2011 after heading international forces in Iraq and later in Afghanistan.
The BBC's Bilal Sarwary, in Kabul, says the scandal is making headlines and has shocked many people in Afghanistan, where Gen Allen had built good relations with leaders and commanders.
Some Afghan officials are asking how he found time to write thousands of emails when he was in charge of running a war, our correspondent says.
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