Bush administration 'spent three months reviewing ports deal'

BUSH administration officials, trying to calm a political furore over allowing a United Arab Emirates company to take over six US seaports, told Congress yesterday they spent three months reviewing the deal and said all concerns about security were satisfied.

"We're not aware of a single national security concern raised recently that was not part of the multi-agency, three-month review," Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt told a Senate Armed Services Committee briefing.

Representatives of key agencies that investigated the port deal - but not the heads of the various departments - sought to reassure senators just hours after US President George W Bush declared "people don't need to worry about security."