Bush 'ready to accept anti-toture law'

The White house has finally agreed to a senator’s call for a law specifically banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terror suspects, congressional leaders said in Washington today.

It marks the end of months of resistance by the President George Bush’s administration to Senator John McCain’s campaign.

Under the emerging deal, CIA and other civilian interrogators would be given the same legal rights as are currently guaranteed members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines, the officials said.

The congressional officials said they did not want to pre-empt an expected announcement later today at the White House, possibly by President Bush and Mr McCain.

They also cautioned that the agreement was encountering opposition in the House of Representatives from Republican Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. A spokesman for Hunter said negotiations were ongoing.

But Republican Sen John Warner, Hunter’s counterpart in the Senate, was said to be on board. His spokesman, John Ullyot, said: “Senator Warner is meeting with Chairman Hunter to work out the refinements.”

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives endorsed the Senate-passed ban, agreeing that the US needed to set uniform guidelines for the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror and to make clear that US policy prohibits torture.

That put pressure on the White House at a time when the president is daily having to defend his wartime policies amid declining public support for the Iraq war and his own low standing in opinion polls.