A low drift nanomanipulation device operating in a scanning electron microscope was constructed. The device allowed to manipulate and to characterize the electrical properties of flexible and highly conductive gold nanowires with diameters down to 15 nm. Individual nanowires could be electrically contacted either to substrate electrodes or to movable tip electrodes of the nanomanipulation device. Measuring the total resistance of a single nanowire at different lengths gave the intrinsic conductivity (sigma approximate to 2.6 x 10(7) S/m) close to that of the bulk material (sigma = 4.3 x 10(7) S/m). At high current densities the phenomenon of electromigration could be observed. The problem of spontaneous deposition of insulating layers on the gold objects from contaminations in the SEM chamber is addressed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.