WASHINGTON, Feb 21: Republican and Democrat lawmakers have joined forces in an effort to undo a Bush administration decision to give control of six US ports to a Dubai firm.

In statements published in Tuesday’s newspapers, lawmakers from both the government and opposition benches alleged that the United Arab Emirates is one of those Arab countries that were linked to the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

The lawmakers also alleged that the US government only conducted ‘a flimsy investigation’, as one of them said, and ‘made an arrangement’ that could allow Al Qaeda to infiltrate US ports.

“There are conditions, which shows they had concerns, but it’s all procedural and relies entirely on good faith,” said Congressman Pete King, the Republican chairman of the House committee for homeland security. “There’s nothing in those conditions ... nothing that assures us they’re not hiring someone with (Osama) bin Laden.”

The firm, Dubai Ports World, owned by the government of Dubai, made a $6.8 billion deal last week to buy control of the ports - including Manhattan’s cruise ship terminal and Newark’s giant container port - from a British firm.

Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich has said he is considering legal moves to either delay or ‘simply void’ the federally approved business deal that would give the UAE company control of operations at Maryland’s Baltimore port.

New York Governor George Pataki, also a Republican like Mr Ehrlich, made a similar threat, saying he was ‘very concerned’ about the purchase, which also would cover five other ports, including New York.

Hearings on the deal have been called for this week in Congress, and Senators Hillary Clinton and Bob Menendez, both Democrats, have proposed a law to ban such takeovers.

In a statement they assailed the deal and said President Bush should stop it to better protect the US from ‘terrorists’.

“We wouldn’t turn over our customs service or our border patrol to a foreign government,” said Mr Menendez of New Jersey. “We shouldn’t turn over the ports of the United States either.”

Mr Menendez said he and Mrs Clinton would introduce legislation prohibiting the sale of port operations to foreign governments.