WASHINGTON, Jan 27: Some 115 lawmakers of the ruling Republican Party have introduced a bill in the US Congress which will, if enacted, allow law enforcement agencies to deport legal immigrants on terrorism charges.

The bill also calls for giving more discretionary powers to judges for denying asylum claims. The movers further seek more powers to clamp down on immigrants living and working in the US without proper authorization.

F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and his colleagues introduced the bill on Wednesday evening, hours after President George Bush called for action on his guest-worker programme, which would give illegal aliens now in the country temporary legal status.

Mr Sensenbrenner and chairmen of four other committees also sent a letter to Mr Bush urging him to give more money for measures aimed at preventing illegal aliens from entering the country.

The new bill would extend the law so that terrorism-related grounds for excluding someone from entering the US also become grounds for deportation for those already here and would revamp the asylum system to make it easier for judges to deny a claim for asylum. The bill's major focus is to crack down on illegal aliens' ability to obtain and use driver's licences.