WASHINGTON, June 30: Republican leaders in the US Congress are drafting a legislation to grant the Bush administration the authority to try prisoners at Guantanamo Bay before a military tribunal despite a Supreme Court ruling that such tribunals are illegal.

On Thursday, the US Supreme Court ruled that the military commissions convened to try detainees lack the power to proceed and that the Bush administration had ‘no blank cheque’ to decide how to try terror suspects.

The White House, however, contended that the ruling does not effectively curb the president’s authority and shortly after the court announced its decision, President George W. Bush punted the issue to Congress.

“To the extent that there is latitude to work with Congress to determine whether or not the military tribunals will be an avenue in which to give people their day in court, we will do so,” he told a White House press briefing.

“As I understand, certain senators have already been out expressing their desire to what the Supreme Court found, and we will work with Congress. I want to find a way forward,” he added.

Taking cue from the president, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced that after the 4th of July recess, he will introduce legislation “that authorizes military commissions and appropriate due-process procedures for trials of terrorist combatants”.

But the opposition Democrats said the decision was a staggering defeat for the Bush administration which had no authority to constitute the tribunals the court has thrown out.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy called the decision “a stunning repudiation of the Bush administration’s lawless behaviour at Guantanamo”.