WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawai'i strongly defended the honor of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens at the Alaska senator's corruption trial today, saying he's never heard of his friend telling a lie.

"His reputation for truthfulness and honesty is what, sir?" defense attorney Brendan Sullivan asked.

"Absolute," Inouye answered emphatically.

Stevens, 84, is accused of lying on Senate forms to conceal more than $250,000 in renovations on his cabin and other gifts from Bill Allen, his close friend and former chief of a major Alaska oil services and construction company, VECO Corp.

But Inouye, who said he's so close to Stevens and his family that the Alaska senator's daughter calls him "Uncle Dan," told prosecutors that he's "never heard of him lying under oath."

"I've never known of him to lie," Inouye said, "and I wouldn't expect him to."

It remained unclear whether Stevens, the straight-talking, longest-serving Senate Republican and patriarch of Alaska politics for generations, would take the stand in his own defense. He has languished in the federal courtroom as a Democratic opponent back home mounts a strong challenge to the seat he's held for 40 years.

The GOP icon's lawyers started their defense of him by calling his friends and constituents to testify in front of the jury to the senator's reputation of honesty and truthfulness. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to testify tomorrow.

Inouye is one of Stevens' best friends, with the two World War II veterans calling each other "brother" and the Hawai'i senator going so far to as to hold a fundraising lunch for Stevens in Washington in April.

The two have traveled the world together and are the top two senators on the panel controlling the Pentagon budget. For years, they've used the post to deliver federal money to their states. They are also the chairman and top Republican, respectively, on the influential Senate Commerce Committee.

The Pentagon budget gets done quickly in the Senate because of Stevens' reputation for honesty among senators, Inouye said. "This community has absolute faith in Ted Stevens," Inouye said. "His word is good."

Stevens has temporarily stepped down from those positions while he's on trial. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison on each of seven charges, though under federal sentencing guidelines, he probably would receive much less prison time, if any.

Inouye, who as a Senate chairman is used to asking questions on Capitol Hill instead of answering them, briefly sparred with prosecutor Nicholas Marsh, who tried to get him to answer a hypothetical question about whether he would change his opinion of a person who has lied.

If Marsh was talking about Stevens, "I don't know Ted Stevens ever told a lie," Inouye said.

Marsh kept trying to ask the hypothetical question, until Inouye finally said: "I'm not inclined to respond to hypothetical questions."

Defense lawyers insist that Stevens was too busy in Washington to pay close attention to the renovation of the cabin near Anchorage, which his wife oversaw. They also say their client assumed that the $160,000 they paid to another contractor covered everything.

The prosecution, which rested its case earlier today, relied on testimony by several VECO workers who, starting in 2000, labored for months to transform a modest A-frame cabin into a two-story home with wraparound decks, new electric and plumbing, sauna and a master-bedroom balcony. Prosecutors called as their star witness Allen, who has pleaded guilty to bribery in a corruption investigation resulting in convictions of several Alaska legislators.

A self-made multimillionaire who's known Stevens for more than two decades, Allen testified that the senator came up with the idea for the cabin renovation to make room for visiting grandchildren. As the work progressed, Stevens sometimes asked him for invoices, but Allen said he ignored the requests because he liked him too much and the senator never ended up paying VECO.

Following his arrest in 2006, Allen agreed to secretly record phone conversations with Stevens. In tapes played for the jury, the senator coached his friend on how to fend off the FBI, but also said, "I don't think we've done anything wrong, Bill."

Behind the scenes at the trial, Stevens' attorneys have complained repeatedly to the judge that prosecutors have improperly withheld information that was favorable to Stevens and used records they knew were faulty to try to sway the jury.

Though he's rejected four motions for mistrial, the judge on Wednesday threw out disputed portions of the prosecution case, including misleading records saying that VECO welder Dave Anderson logged hundreds of hours on the cabin project. Allen's nephew left for Oregon for a few weeks in the middle of the job, something jurors weren't told when VECO accounting records were introduced as evidence earlier in the trial.

Stevens is hoping jurors will acquit him in time to return to Alaska and defend his seat in an aggressive race against Democratic Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

Anderson, who is Allen's nephew, testified that he performed hundreds of hours of work on the house over many months, and that Veco paid for all materials. Several other Veco employees also worked on the house, he said.

Anderson's testimony was unexpected since prosecutors said Wednesday they were done with their case. But the judge granted their request today to call the extra witness, delaying a defense case that was to feature testimony by former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Powell was on hand at the courthouse today morning to testify for Stevens, but left once the prosecution case resumed.

Stevens is accused of lying on Senate forms to conceal more than $250,000 in renovations on his cabin and other gifts from Bill Allen, the former chief of a giant oil pipeline company, VECO Corp.

Today, prosecutors called Dave Anderson in response to the judge's decision to tell the jury to disregard records that he logged hundreds of hours on the cabin project. Allen's nephew and VECO employee left for Oregon for a few weeks in the middle of the job — something jurors weren't told when VECO accounting records were introduced as evidence earlier in the trial.

Stevens' attorneys have repeatedly accused prosecutors of improperly withholding information that was favorable to Stevens and of using records they knew were faulty to try to sway the jury.

Anderson testified that starting in 2000, he and a parade of other VECO workers spent 10 hours a day, six days a week jacking up the cabin and doing construction on a room underneath and on a new garage, deck, balcony and a fire escape ladder — all paid for by the company.

"This was basically Bill's thing," Anderson said of Allen. His uncle wanted the crew to "pretty much take care of Sen. Stevens," he added.

Lawyers for Stevens face several challenges once they present their evidence. Among them: Making jurors like a man who has described himself as a "mean, miserable S.O.B."

On Capitol Hill, the Senate's longest-serving Republican is the self-styled "Incredible Hulk" who unleashes his temper on lawmakers who don't go his way. But in the courtroom, with his future on the line, Stevens needs jurors to see him a likable, honest man who believed he was paying every bill for the renovations.

"As a general rule, likability, like credibility, matters when the case is close," said Saul Kassin, a psychologist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the author of books on courtroom psychology.

It's unclear whether Stevens himself will testify.

Taking the stand would give him the chance to tell his side of the story: that he asked Allen, a friend, to supervise his home renovation and he believed Allen was giving him all the bills. If Allen, who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaskan politicians, tacked on freebies, Stevens could say, he didn't know about them.

Testifying would let Stevens show jurors the kind, quirky and even affectionate side of his personality that his aides and friends say he displays privately. The downside of testifying would subject him to risky cross-examination by prosecutors who could try to unleash the inner "Hulk" of a man who has been heard on secretly recorded tapes to be sometimes profane and always defiant when he thinks he's right.

If convicted, Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each of seven charges, though under federal sentencing guidelines, he probably would receive much less prison time, if any. He is hoping jurors will acquit him in time to return to Alaska and defend his seat in an aggressive race against Democratic Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich