Hitachi charges entrapment

Claiming the FBI used entrapment in its ''sting'' operation, Hitachi Ltd., one of Japan's largest electronics firms, plans to ask for dismissal of industrial spying charges. Caught in one of the computer industry's biggest scandals, Hitachi's lawyers may ask a federal judge to drop the charges of stealing industrial secrets from IBM.

Employees of Hitachi and Japan's other computer giant, Mitsubishi Electric Company, were indicted June 21.