Emirates firm agrees to new US review

In six pages of documents sent to the White House, DP World, based in Dubai, asked for a 45-day investigation of plans to run shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami, and Philadelphia.

The offer, made after negotiations over the weekend among US and company officials, defused threats by some lawmakers to introduce legislation this week that might delay or block the deal.

The president's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said the White House supports the plan to delay the ports, as long as it was not derailed. Senior US officials and DP World executives have coordinated their efforts in recent weeks.

DP World's request for a review was highly unusual.

The secretive US committee that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in US industry has conducted such full investigations only about two dozen times among the more than 1,500 deals it has reviewed.

The company said that until May 1, an executive based in London, who is a British subject, would have authority over DP World's US operations. It pledged that Dubai executives would not control or influence company business in the United States, but it said it was entitled to all profits for the period. It also said it would appoint an American to be its chief security officer in the United States.

''We hope that voluntarily agreeing to further scrutiny demonstrates our commitment to our long-standing relationship with the United States," said Edward H. Bilkey, the chief operating officer.

President Bush has defended his administration's approval of DP World's proposal to buy Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. It was not clear whether the re-examination by US officials would produce a different outcome.

''We're satisfied that there's been a complete review of the deal," Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said in a discussion on ''Fox News Sunday."

In an administration review, completed Jan. 17, DP World agreed to cooperate with law enforcement investigations and to disclose records on demand about ''foreign operational direction" of its business.