A Dubai-owned company abruptly abandoned its plan for managing operations at six US ports yesterday, defusing an election-year showdown between President George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress.

TWO lawsuits have been filed in a bid to stop the $6.8 billion (€5.7bn) takeover of significant operations at six major US ports by an Arab company.

The Bush administration secretly required a company in the United Arab Emirates to cooperate with future US investigations before approving its takeover of operations at six American ports, it emerged today.