Whitehouse in 9/11 testimony U-turn

THE White House backed down yesterday and agreed to let National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testify in public under oath before the commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The policy reversal was made on condition that the panel seeks no further public testimony from White House officials, the administration said.

In addition, President George W Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney have agreed to a single joint private session with all 10 commissioners, with one commission staff member present to take notes of the session, said White House counsel Alberto Gonzales.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the commission had unanimously agreed to the administration's conditions for the testimony.

The decision was conditional on the Bush administration receiving assurances in writing from the commission that such a step does not set a precedent and that the commission does not request "additional public testimony from any White House official, including Dr Rice," Mr Gonzales said in a letter to the panel.

Subject to the conditions, the president will agree "to the commission's request for Dr Rice to testify publicly regarding matters within the commission's statutory mandate," the letter stated.

"The president recognises the truly unique and extraordinary circumstances underlying the commission's responsibility to prepare a detailed report on the facts," Mr Gonzales added.

The decision to have Ms Rice testify was made in the wake of the publication of former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke's book, in which he charges that the Bush administration was slow to act against the threat of al-Qaida.

Ms Rice responded at the weekend: "I don't know what a sense of urgency any greater than the one that we had would have caused us to do differently."