Goldman Sachs, the American investment banking partnership, which will price its initial public offering today, has disclosed that the Department of Justice has requested information as part of an inquiry into alleged price fixing by Wall Street underwriting syndicates.

Similar requests known as civil investigative demands are believed to have been received by other Wall Street firms, including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney, Lehman Brothers and Hambrecht & Quist, in the last few days.

"This request for information by the DOJ is a follow-on to pre-existing private class action litigation. We do not expect it to have any effect on our plans to go public," a Goldman spokesman said. Securities industry analysts said it was unlikely to have any impact on the initial pricing of Goldman shares, noting that investor demand for the offering has been extremely strong and the deal is believed to be as much as 25 times oversubscribed.