WASHINGTON - Northwest lawmakers from both parties have attacked a Bush administration plan to allow a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates to take over shipping operations at six U.S. seaports.

All four senators from Oregon and Washington questioned the deal, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on President Bush to immediately reverse course and block it.

“If ever there was a better case for you to exercise your authority to suspend or prohibit a foreign acquisition posing a threat to our national security, we have not seen it,” Wyden and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Wednesday in a letter to Bush.

Wyden also asked Bush to make public documents showing how administration officials, led by Treasury Secretary John Snow, approved the deal, which he said “raises serious national security questions as well as questions about the judgment of those tasked with safeguarding this country.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, ridiculed a White House spokesman's attempt to downplay the problem by saying the deal would not change port security “one iota.”

“That's exactly the problem,” Murray said. “President Bush believes in the status quo, but we know massive, comprehensive reform is necessary.”

At a Wednesday news conference in Seattle, Murray and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, argued that the deal should be put on hold until it's investigated and Congress can be assured the transfer of ownership will not compromise port security.

“This is a state-owned entity that is in a country that has a mixed record on terrorism,” Collins said. While the UAE has been an ally to the United States, it has also served as a base of operations for terrorists, said Collins, who is chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Murray and Collins said a bill they had co-sponsored would bolster port security with such measures as establishing standards for moving and storing containers, requiring all ports to install radiation detection devices, and developing protocols for resuming trade after a terrorist attack.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Dave Reichert, R-Wash., all said they had serious questions about the Bush administration's plan, which would hand operations at ports in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans to Dubai Ports World, a business owned by the UAE.

Lawmakers from both parties have noted that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers used the UAE as an operational and financial base. Some critics also contend the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

“We need to take a closer look at this decision,” Smith said in a statement Wednesday. “At the same time, we should be careful about discriminating against a nation simply because it's in the Middle East.”

Walden, a member of the House Energy and Commerce panel, said that, like many of his constituents in Oregon's 2nd District, he was “very concerned to hear of plans to turn over operations of these facilities to a government-run entity” from another country.

“If we do not have control of our borders and ports, we do not have control of our homeland security,” Walden said.