Dubai company to hand off U.S. ports

WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- Dubai Ports World plans to divest itself of management at six U.S. ports by transferring them to "a U.S. entity," Sen. John Warner, R-Va., announced.

The announcement, a day after a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved legislation that would have barred the company from taking over the ports, defuses a potential confrontation between President George Bush and Republican legislators.

Warner made the announcement Thursday on the Senate floor, The Washington Post reported. He had been trying to negotiate a compromise.

Bush has repeatedly said security concerns had been addressed, and the deal transferring management from London-based P&O was sound. He also threatened to veto any congressional bills that would block it. It would be Bush's first veto in his five years as president.

But the possibility of a company owned by the government of a United Arab Emirates company managing terminals at major East Coast and Gulf Coast ports outraged public opinion. Reps. Jim Moran, D-Va., and Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., were the only House Appropriations Committee members to oppose adding language barring the deal to an appropriations bill.