WASHINGTON, Oct 17: President George W. Bush signed a law on Tuesday authorizing tough interrogation and prosecution of terrorism suspects.

“This bill will allow the Central Intelligence Agency to continue its programme for questioning key terrorist leaders and operatives,” Mr Bush said at the White House before signing into law the Military Commissions Act of 2,006.

The US president acknowledged several weeks ago that the CIA had been secretly interrogating some suspected terrorists overseas and asked for Congress’s authority to try them in military commissions.

The detention facilities, when revealed last year, caused a political uproar in Washington and attracted criticism worldwide. But Mr Bush defended the programme as important for protecting America’s vital security interests. “This programme has been one of the most successful intelligence efforts in American history. It has helped prevent attacks on our country,” he said.

The law also establishes military tribunals for terrorism suspects, held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at other known and secret locations. Terming the bill as “one of the most important pieces of legislation in the war on terror,” Mr Bush said it allows the US to “prosecute captured terrorists for war crimes through a full and fair trial.”

Of the hundreds of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, only 10 have so far been selected for trial. The indefinite detention of others has been condemned by human rights groups as violating international law.