HELENA -- An out-of-state group that will not disclose the source of its funding is running television ads in Montana encouraging Republican Sen. Conrad Burns to oppose a bill creating a trust fund for people sickened by asbestos.

Americans for Job Security, of Alexandria, Va., began running 30-second ads Wednesday on KTVQ-2, a Billings CBS affiliate, said Tim Keating, the station's general sales manager.

The ads, which encourage people to call Burns and tell him to vote against the asbestos trust fund legislation, stopped airing Friday, Keating said. Americans for Job Security bought 21 30-second spots.

The ads deal with a bill before the Senate to take money from asbestos companies and their insurance companies and put it in a special, $140-billion trust fund to pay for the medical bills and other expenses of people sickened by asbestos exposure. A provision sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., stipulates that Libby residents hurt by the cancer-causing fiber would receive between $400,000 and $1.1 million apiece.

Burns and Baucus both favor the bill.

Libby is the home of a former vermiculite mine owned by W.R. Grace & Co. The vermiculite ore, which was processed and used in home insulation and other products, was contaminated with a rare and especially dangerous kind of asbestos.

The asbestos wafted over through the Libby mine and mill, as well as homes and the ambient air in the town, studies show. Some 200 people who lived in the town have died due to asbestos exposure and many others are sick.

Michael Dubke, president of Americans for Job Security, said the group, categorized as a trade non-profit similar to a chamber of commerce, opposes the trust fund because it will bankrupt existing companies and won't contain enough money to cover all the asbestos-related health expenses nationally.

Dubke said the group is spending a little over $1 million to run similar ads in Montana, 11 states and the District of Columbia, encouraging the defeat of the bill.

"What are conservatives saying about the $140 billion asbestos trust fund?'' the ad asks. It ends by encouraging Montanans to "call Senator Conrad Burns. Urge him to stand up for principle. Say no to bigger government.''

Dubke said the nonprofit gets its money from its members, but he refused to say who they were. As organized, the group is not legally required to disclose its members.

The ads are running only in Billings, more than 500 miles away from Libby.

Dubke said the group targeted Burns but not Baucus because the Republican senator has not yet come out with a stance on the bill.

Burns, however, has come out in strong support of the bill. During the past six weeks, his office has put out eight press releases about the senator's position. One quoted him saying "The asbestos fight is just beginning, and I am going to give it everything I've got.''

Burns spokesman James Pendleton said the ads have not resulted in a spike in phone calls and Burns has no intentions of changing his stance on the bill.

"The people that matter are the people of Libby,'' Pendleton said. "They're saying, 'Senator Burns, support this.' ''

Barrett Kaiser, a Baucus spokesman, also said Burns' position on the bill, particularly recently, has not been a secret.