President George W Bush has admitted he authorised secret monitoring of communications within the United States in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks.
In his weekly address, he confirmed a report which appeared in the New York Times on Friday - and attacked it.

Because of the newspaper report, "our enemies have learned information they should not have", he said.

He said the programme was reviewed every 45 days, and insisted he had upheld the law in defending Americans.

Senators of both Mr Bush's Republican party and the opposition Democrats expressed concerns about the programme on Friday.

Senator Arlen Specter, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , said "there is no doubt that this is inappropriate", adding that Senate hearings would be held early next year as "a very, very high priority".

"This is Big Brother run amok," was the reaction of Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy.

Senator Russell Feingold, another Democrat, called it a "shocking revelation" that "ought to send a chill down the spine of every senator and every American".

But in his address on Saturday, Mr Bush said the programme was "critical to saving American lives".

"The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws to protect them and our civil liberties," he said.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Mr Bush had signed a secret presidential order following the attacks on 11 September 2001, allowing the National Security Agency to track the international telephone calls and e-mails of hundreds of people without referral to the courts.

Previously, surveillance on American soil was generally limited to foreign embassies.

American law usually requires a secret court, known as a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to give permission before intelligence officers can conduct surveillance on US soil.

The real story of David Hicks... what is the evidence against the accused Australian terrorist as he prepares for a US military trial? And what has happened to him while in American custody?

"The Australians, the Americans, they all know ­ this is a façade, this is a farce"... David Hicks' US lawyer Josh Dratel.

"He knowingly joined the Taliban and Al Qaeda. I don't have any sympathy for anyone who's done that"... Prime Minister John Howard.

David Hicks came cheap. As US-backed Northern Alliance fighters routed Afghanistan's Taliban in late 2001, they seized the fleeing young Australian at a taxi station. Then they sold him to the Americans for $1000.

Hicks is due to front a US military commission on terror charges, it may become clear whether this paltry investment has reaped a dividend for his captors, or mostly brought them trouble.

While Hicks has co-operated with interrogators, his case has irritated Washington and Canberra, stirring persistent allegations about American treatment of detainees and Australian acquiescence.

What did David Hicks do to become one of the first Guantanamo detainees to face military trial - and the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars? There is no doubt he spent time in Al Qaeda training camps. But did he, as charged by the Americans, conspire with Osama bin Laden to commit terrorism, aid enemy forces and try to kill coalition soldiers?

Four Corners unravels the story of David Hicks from his early days doing drugs and menial jobs boning chickens and filleting kangaroos, through his restless years of yearning for inspiration and adventure, to his conversion to Islam and his fateful journey to Afghanistan.

This investigation throws new light on Hicks' role as a trainee fighter in Pakistan and Afghanistan - and on his starring role as the only Caucasian scheduled for military trial.

The trial ­ if it proceeds - might produce evidence to damn Hicks. But some, including his American lawyer and a former fellow detainee, claim Hicks is the "token white man" being used to lend the trials credibility in the non-western world.

The governor of the US state of Maine, John Baldacci, has signed a multi-million dollar trade deal with Cuba's state-run food agency Alimport.

Under the deal, Alimport will buy Maine products worth $20m (£11.3m) by July 2007,including seed potatoes, fish and dairy cattle.