Move to broaden definition of 'enemy combatant'

The United States could detain more foreigners as enemy combatants under legislation Congress is expected to debate this week after a last-minute change in the bill today.

Democrats complained that Republicans quietly made several changes to the bill defining procedures for trying foreign terrorism suspects after an agreement last week between the White House and a group of dissident Republican senators.

Senator Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said the new elements would complicate efforts to push the bill through Congress before campaigning for November elections begins at the weekend.

Republican Lindsey Graham, a key negotiator on the bill, said enemy combatants would now include those who provided money, weapons and other support for terrorist groups as well as those involved in actual operations.

Senator Graham of South Carolina said the term "enemy combatant" also would apply to those fighting a US ally.

"We're making sure that an enemy combatant could be defined as something other than a front-line troop.

"We want to make sure that giving material aid and support to terrorism would put you in the enemy combatant category," Mr Graham said.

He added that US citizens could not be deemed enemy combatants under the bill.

The Bush administration has declared the detainees held at the US naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, most of whom were picked up in Afghanistan, to be enemy combatants who can be detained indefinitely.

Senator Levin said he opposed the new definition because it was too broad. "You can identify anyone anywhere as an enemy combatant, and their rights would be severely restricted whether or not you captured them on a battlefield," he said.