Friday, September 22 2006 11:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Ending a damaging rebellion in the Senate, the White House and senior Republican lawmakers have reached an agreement on the guidelines for interrogation and trial of suspects in the war on terror.

The Bush administration was facing vehement opposition to the White House version of the legislation by moderate Republicans, who said, among other things, that the moral authority of the United States was in question if the Bill went according to administration guidelines.

After the accord was reached yesterday, US President George W Bush said, : "I want to thank the members of the United States Senate for working with my administration to meet our top legislative priority, and that is a law that will help us crack the terror network and to save American lives."

"I had a single test for the pending legislation, and that's this: Would the CIA operators tell me whether they could go forward with the programme; that is the programme to question detainees, to be able to get information to protect the American people?" Bush said in a statement.

Bush was pleased that the agreement preserves the "single most potent tool we have in protecting America and foiling terrorist attacks, and that is the CIA programme to question the world's most dangerous terrorists and to get their secrets".

He also asked Congress to put it into law before adjourning for the midterm elections which is now expected on September 29.

The standoff in Senate frustrated plans of the Grand Old Party to present a united strategy on the war on terror in the mid-term elections.