Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The top U.S. intelligence official said a state-owned Dubai company's planned takeover of facilities at six U.S. seaports presents a ``low'' risk to national security.

``We assessed the threat to U.S. national security posed by DP World to be low,'' National Intelligence Director John Negroponte told the Senate Armed Services Committee. ``We didn't see any red flags come up during the course of our inquiry.''

Negroponte said the U.S. intelligence community gave the findings of its month-long assessment to the Bush administration panel that reviewed the deal on Dec. 5. He said concerns raised by the Coast Guard in its report a week later ``were resolved to their own satisfaction.''

U.S. lawmakers may try to block DP World's deal to take over some terminal operations at Miami, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, New York and Newark, New Jersey from London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. The Bush administration approved the transaction last month and it's slated to close March 2.

Lawmakers say that giving control of some port facilities to a company based in the United Arab Emirates might threaten U.S. security, and DP World on Feb. 26 agreed to a second review of the deal. The container terminals are among the 29 DP World is acquiring as part of its purchase of P&O.

Legislation

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate yesterday would require the 45-day review and then give Congress 30 days to weigh the results and pass on the deal.

The measure also would require that President George W. Bush put a hold on the acquisition and that administration officials brief Congress on the review's findings. Currently, the administration alone determines whether the acquisition goes through.

Bush today said he stood by his administration's decision to let the deal proceed and his threat to veto any legislation passed by Congress that would block the transaction.

``If there was any doubt in my mind, or people in my administration's mind, that our ports would be less secure and the American people in danger, this deal wouldn't go forward,'' Bush said today after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the White House.

Bush said U.S. port security would remain in the hands of the Coast Guard and Customs Service. Bush also noted that ``there are a lot of foreign companies managing U.S. ports.''

`Personal Interest'

Negroponte's comments came during his annual briefing on threats to U.S. security to the armed services panel. Lawmakers pressed him for his views on the port deal and urged that he take an active role in the second review.

Negroponte told the senators that, while the intelligence community is ``not per se a member'' of the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, ``You can be assured that I will take a personal interest'' in this review.

John Warner of Virginia, who chairs the armed services panel, urged lawmakers to consider the support given by the United Arab Emirates to the war on terror and the ``high degree of mutual trust'' that exists between that nation and the U.S.

``You cannot look in isolation at a business contract like this without considering the diplomatic ramifications, the economic ramifications with other nations who are contemplating transactions with the United States and, indeed, as I've said, the military ramifications,'' Warner said.

Warning from U.A.E.

The emirates, a federation of seven family-ruled sheikhdoms, is an ally of the U.S. The state bought $7 billion- worth of Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 fighter aircraft. U.S. Navy ships have the right to dock in Dubai's Jebel Ali port, the only harbor in the Persian Gulf large enough to handle aircraft carriers.

The emirates' economy minister today said that Arab and Muslim investors may divert funds away from the U.S. to Europe and Asia because of political opposition to this deal.

``Some of the countries will probably start thinking there are easier countries to invest money in,'' the emirates' economy minister, Sheikha Lubna al-Qasimi, 48, said in an interview in Abu Dhabi.

Dubai last year spent more than $1 billion on New York real estate. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, of which the U.A.E. is the fourth largest, held $66.7 billion of U.S. Treasury securities at the end of 2005, up from $62.1 billion a year earlier, according to the Treasury Department.

New Application

The U.S. is treating DP World's request for a second review as a new application, separate from its previous assessment.

``The transaction is different,'' Tony Fratto, the Treasury Department's chief spokesman, told reporters yesterday.

``The company since its initial filing back in December has come forward with new assurances and changes to the transaction involving the treatment of the six U.S. ports,'' Fratto said.

The final decision will be left to the president, who has 15 days to accept or reject the transaction after receiving the panel's recommendation. Treasury Secretary John Snow will sign off on the recommendation this time before the report is sent to the White House, Fratto said. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff also will be kept informed, said Russ Knocke, his spokesman.

Bush, Snow and Chertoff weren't involved in the initial review of the acquisition and said they didn't know of the deal until after it was approved.

Objectivity Questioned

Fratto said he understood that some people may question the objectivity of the second review, given the administration's support of the transaction the first time around. ``The best thing we can do is ensure that these people are allowed to do their jobs,'' he said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said that, if the review concludes that deal shouldn't go through, lawmakers ``have the wherewithal'' to pass legislation to undo it.

Frist, a Tennessee Republican, told reporters in Washington that he wouldn't attempt to pass legislation related to the ports deal during the 45-day review.

Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate's Democratic leader, said any new review would be a sham because Bush has already said he favors the deal. He predicted Congress would not approve it.

``There will be a vote in the Senate on this. It will not get by,'' Reid told reporters on Capitol Hill.

To contact the reporter on this story: Judy Mathewson in Washington at jmathewson@bloomberg.net .