Washington: President George W Bush today lobbied again for an intelligence law allowing US government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, as the tone of the dispute between the White House and Congress over terrorist surveillance grew increasingly sharp.

"To put it bluntly, if the enemy is calling into America, we really need to know what they re saying, and we need to know what they re thinking, and we need to know who they re talking to," Bush said at the start of his annual meeting with the nation s governors at the White House.

"This is a different kind of struggle than we ve ever faced before. It s essential that we understand the mentality of these killers," Bush said.

The law in question targets foreign terrorist threats and allows eavesdropping on communications involving people in the US, so long as those people are not the intended focus or target of the surveillance. The latest version of the legislation expired on February 16.

Bush and Congress are at odds over whether to give legal immunity to companies that in the past helped the government spy on customers without court warrants.

Bush wants the House of Representatives to act on legislation the Senate has passed. That bill provides retroactive protection for telecommunications companies that wiretapped US phone and computer lines at the government s request after the September 11,2001 terrorist attacks, without court permission. The House version does not provide such immunity.

Source : PTI