White House agrees to NSA review by court-senator

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) The White House, in a policy reversal, has agreed to allow a secret federal court review of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, a top Senate Republican announced today.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said he has negotiated a proposed bill with the White House that would achieve that and voiced hope his panel would approve it.

''We have structured a bill which is agreeable to the White House and I think will be agreeable to this committee,'' Specter told the panel, which will vote on it perhaps later this month after members have had an opportunity to review it.

Specter and other lawmakers pressed Bush to seek clearance from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for the spying program, implemented after the September 11 attacks and first disclosed last December by The New York Times.

Specter earlier said the administration may have broken the law in allowing the NSA to monitor international phone calls and e-mails of US citizens without first obtaining warrants.

The act requires warrants from the court for intelligence-related eavesdropping inside the United States.

But Bush had defended the program, saying he had the power and responsibility as a wartime president to protect the nation.

Specter said he had been in discussions with Bush and other members of the administration for weeks to forge a deal.

The Pennsylvania Republican said the court will determine the program's constitutionality based, in part, on arguments presented to it by the attorney general.

Specter said the court will also consider an explanation about how the program is ''reasonably designed to ensure that the communications intercepted involve a terrorist agent of a terrorist or someone reasonably believed to have communications associated with a terrorist.'' The bill would also require the attorney general to provide members of the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence committees with information about any electronic surveillance program in effect.

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