Senate Intelligence Committee member Dick Durbin, a Democrat who opposed the war, told ABC television that Tenet told the panel during a five-hour grilling on Wednesday that a top Bush aide essentially forced his hand.

"We've been asking the wrong question. We've been asking why did George Tenet not stop the White House from misleading the American people. The more important question is, who is it in the White House who was hell-bent on misleading the American people and why are they still there?" said Durbin.

"There was this negotiation between the White House and the CIA about just how far you could go and be close to the truth," the Durbin said.

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan reiterated that the allegation should not have appeared in the speech but quickly dismissed Durbin's account, saying: "It's nonsense, it's ridiculous."

"It's not surprising, coming from someone who was in a rather small minority in Congress that did not support the action that we took," he said, a reference to Durbin's opposition to a resolution last year authorizing the war.

"I think that characterization is nonsense," said McClellan. "The whole idea that the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was not real is something that was never under debate previously."

Meanwhile, US lawmakers on Thursday debated a measure introduced by Durbin, calling on US President George W. Bush to explain to Congress as exactly how intelligence was used by his White House in the runup to the war.

If the questions are not resolved, Durbin warned on the floor of the US senate, "there will be a shadow over the intelligence gathering and use in this administration. That is not in the best interest of the national security, that is not in the best interest of the people of the United States."

His proposed legislation was offered as an amendment to a defense spending bill being considered by the senate. His amendment was to be voted on later Thursday.

Tenet has publicly taken the blame for not purging US President George W. Bush's January "State of the Union" speech to the nation of a charge that Iraq sought uranium from Africa, which the White House has since repudiated.

Durbin said Tenet had identified the official by name, but the lawmaker refused to make that information public, citing the classified nature of the briefing and adding "it should come out from the president."

"The president should be outraged that he was misled, and he then misled the American people. He needs to go to the very heart of the matter. People need to be held accountable on his watch in his White House," said Durbin.

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