In a statement, Biden's attorney said Wednesday's search was "planned" with the president's "full support".

The nearly four-hour search of the property related to a wider probe into the handling of classified documents.

The FBI has not commented on the search. As it was consensual, no search warrant was sought.

Biden's lawyer, Bob Bauer, said the search was carried out "without advance public notice" in the interests of "operational security and integrity".

Following the search - which lasted from 0830 to 1200 local time - Bauer said that "no documents with classified markings were found".

Some "materials and handwritten notes" that appear to date to Biden's time as vice president between 2009 and 2017 were taken for "further review", Bauer added.

The search is the latest in a series carried out at various locations, after classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center - an office space - in Washington DC in November. This was not made public at the time.

More documents were discovered at another of Biden's homes in Wilmington, Delaware, in searches conducted in December and January.

The precise number of classified records recovered remains unclear - although at least a dozen were found during the January searches alone.

Biden has said his team did "what they should have done" by alerting officials immediately, and that they are "co-operating fully and completely" with the investigation.

After the first of January's searches, Biden told reporters the files were in a locked garage.

"It's not like they are sitting in the street," he said.

The latest search comes a day after special counsel Robert Hur officially began his duties overseeing the probe into the documents.

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence have also been embroiled in controversy over the handling of classified documents.

In Pence's case, a "small number of documents bearing classified markings" were found at his home in Carmel, Indiana, according to a letter sent to the National Archives by his lawyer. The documents were recovered by the FBI from a safe at the property on 19 January, with two boxes more delivered to the Archives on 23 January.

An August 2022 search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida uncovered dozens of boxes and about 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classified markings.

The search warrant came after attorneys representing Trump had said all government records were returned. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he had declassified the documents taken with him.