WASHINGTON, Jan 13: The Bush administration urged Congress to drop a legislative proposal that would have curbed the ability of US intelligence to use extreme interrogation tactics, the White House acknowledged on Thursday.

But White House spokesman Scott McClellan insisted President George W. Bush has made clear that his administration opposes the use of torture under any circumstances. "We've made it very clear that we do not condone torture. The president would never authorize torture and that applies to everyone," he said at a news briefing.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that, in response to White House pressure, congressional leaders scrapped a legislative measure that would have extended a ban on torture and inhumane treatment to intelligence officers.

McClellan acknowledged that the White House had sent a letter to legislators in October opposing the measure, which was included in a broad bill overhauling national intelligence. But he said the White House had made the letter known at the time. "It's in the letter. Our view was stated in the letter," he said. The Oct. 18 letter said the administration opposed attaching the measure on intelligence officer interrogations and was signed by White House budget chief Joshua Bolten and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

It expressed opposition to the measure on the grounds it "provides legal protections to foreign prisoners to which they are not now entitled under applicable law and policy."

The letter, addressed to Republican Sen Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic US Rep Jane Harman of California, also said the issue of intelligence interrogations was addressed in another legislative proposal.

In addition to explicitly extending to intelligence officers a prohibition against torture or inhumane treatment, the measure would have required the CIA as well as the Pentagon to report to Congress about the methods they were using.

In closed-door negotiations, four senior members from the House and Senate deleted the interrogation restrictions from the final bill after the White House expressed opposition, the Times said.

Some Democratic congressional officials said they believed the Bush administration was trying to maintain some legal latitude for the CIA to use interrogation practices more extreme than those permitted by the military, the Times said. -Reuters