WASHINGTON, May 21: US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, setting up a possible showdown with President George W. Bush, voiced support on Tuesday for an independent commission to investigate events leading up to the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.

Daschle said he expected to reach a decision soon on when to bring to a vote bipartisan legislation calling for creation of a 14-member commission.

“I’m inclined to support a commission, especially in light of recent revelations” about intelligence information possibly linked to Sept. 11, Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said in a brief hallway interview on Capitol Hill.

The intelligence committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate have begun a joint probe into events leading up to the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

The White House backs this investigation. But a number of lawmakers, primarily Democrats, complain the probe could become ensnarled in election-year politics. They say to avoid this an independent commission should be established.—Reuters