Bush says ready to delay Africa trip over spy bill

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush ratcheted up pressure on Congress on Thursday to pass new rules for his domestic spying program before it expires this weekend, saying he was prepared to delay a trip to Africa to help advance the measure.

"If we have to delay, we'll delay," Bush said in his latest manoeuvre to prod lawmakers to favour a new law granting legal immunity to telephone companies that cooperated in his warrantless eavesdropping program.

"There really is no excuse for letting this critical legislation expire," he said.

Bush urged the House of Representatives to pass a White House-backed bill approved by the Senate on Tuesday, saying a failure to act would jeopardize national security by undermining intelligence agencies' ability to monitor communications between terrorism suspects.

Democrats, however, accused Bush of fear-mongering as he and his fellow Republicans seem intent on using the spying debate to score points in a presidential election year by painting the Democrats as weak on counterterrorism.

The current legislation expires on Saturday. Bush has vowed to veto any further temporary extensions and is demanding a long-term fix to solidify the government's expanded powers to conduct domestic surveillance without court orders.

Bush was due to fly to Africa on Friday. He said he was prepared to delay his departure "if it will help them complete their work on this critical bill."

'PROTECT THE NATION'