Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush urged the House to extend a law allowing electronic eavesdropping of suspected terrorists and said he may delay his scheduled trip to Africa tomorrow if needed to complete the measure.

``If Congress does not act,'' Bush said at the White House, ``our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to and what they are saying will be compromised.''

The federal law authorizing electronic eavesdropping of suspected terrorists is temporary. Originally set to expire Feb. 1, it was extended until Feb. 16 to give Congress more time to come up with a long-term solution.

The House of Representatives yesterday rejected a 21-day extension, after a veto threat by Bush, who insisted Congress pass the same long-term, bipartisan legislation that the Senate had approved.

The Senate-passed measure -- unlike an earlier House-passed bill -- gives telecommunications companies legal protection from privacy lawsuits for helping Bush conduct wiretapping without court warrants after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

An inability to get private sector cooperation would ``of course put the American people at risk,'' Bush said.

The Senate measure would extend for six years the new surveillance powers that Congress gave Bush on a temporary basis last August. House leaders also said they might seek agreement on a modified bill and let the current law lapse.

House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland charged that Bush had `played politics by threatening to veto an extension of his own law.''

If the president believed the country would be endangered by the expiration of the Protect America Act, then ``Bush and Republicans would cooperate on an extension of the current law rather than put the nation at risk,'' Hoyer said in a statement.

Even after the law expires, ``the intelligence community has all the tools it needs to continue current surveillance and begin new surveillance on any terrorist threat,'' Hoyer said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 14, 2008 13:14 EST