Dubai Firm Will Give Up Stake in U.S. Ports

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owing to intense opposition in Congress, a United Arab Emirates-owned company signaled Thursday it would end its bid to take over operations at key U.S. ports, the Associated Press reported.

The company, Dubai Ports World, said it would transfer the U.S. operations to a “United States entity,” AP reported.

Congressional Republicans, who had bucked President Bush in opposing the deal, said DPW had pledged full divestiture from the deal, AP said. But some Democrats said they still wanted to see full details of the plan, news services reported.

The announcement appeared to indicate an end to a politically tinged controversy that brought President Bush and Republicans in Congress to the brink of an election-year veto battle on a terrorism-related issue, AP said.

Congress and local and state officials from both parties had opposed the deal in part on grounds that Dubai had in the past allowed some banking connected to terrorism, while the Bush administration said the UAE was a valuable Middle East ally.

The business deal came about after DPW bought a British company, P&O Ports North America, which operates six major U.S. ports on the East Coast.

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