Dubai company says moving ports ops to US entity

WASHINGTON, Mar 9 (Reuters) The state-owned Arab company Dubai Ports World pledged today to transfer operation of US ports it has acquired from the British company P&O to a US entity.

A statement by Dubai Ports World's chief operating officer, Edward Bilkey, was read on the US Senate floor, where senators were arguing about whether to have a vote on blocking the ports contract on national security grounds.

The statement, read by Sen John Warner, a Virginia Republican, said DP World had decided to ''transfer fully'' the US operation of P&O ports in North America, which it had just acquired, to ''a United States entity.'' A DP World spokesman declined to elaborate on what Warner had read. ''His announcement says everything we have to say at this point.'' The Bush administration, which approved the DP World deal in January, is conducting another review of the deal after a firestorm of criticism from Congress that the contract could threaten national security at six major US ports.

Critics of the deal said they were uncertain what the company statement meant. Sen Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said, ''This is a promising development, but of course the devil is in the details.'' The statement said the decision ''is based on an understanding that DP World will have time to affect the transfer in an orderly fashion and that DP World will not suffer economic loss.'' It added that the company would work with the US Treasury Department to implement the decision.

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