Passage of the 2004 defense authorization bill has been held up as the administration and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee have sought to find a compromise on the issue.

The Buy America Act, which is in the House version of the bill but not the Senate's, would require that certain critical items purchased by the Pentagon be made entirely in the United States unless the defense secretary has an urgent reason to buy from a foreign source.

"Personally, I'm a free trader type," Rumsfeld told reporters Thursday when asked about it.

He said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has come up with five or six versions of a possible compromise that would allow passage of a "decent" defense authorization bill, but the White House ultimately would decide what position to take.

"But certainly with the Joint Strike Fighter and the various things we do around the world with other countries, we have to be careful on that issue," he said. "And I'm sure that Secretary Wolfowitz and the negotiators in the conference are being careful."

Britain and other allies have invested billions of dollars in the development of the Joint Strike Fighter, a replacement for the F-16 fighter, on the understanding that their defense industries also will participate in the procurement contracts it generates.

WAR.WIRE