US President George W Bush has attacked The New York Times for revealing details of a covert federal government programme to monitor international financial transactions.
The newpaper reported that the US government had secretly monitored thousands of international banking transactions since the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.
Mr Bush said his administration was right to track the finances of terrorists and said the disclosure of the programme was 'disgraceful'.
The newspaper said it had refused US government requests not to publish the story.
The US government searches involved millions of records held a Belgium-based international co-operative that serves as a clearing house for transactions.
The co-operative serves 7,800 financial institutions in more than 200 countries.
Its database has provided information about ties between suspected terrorists and groups financing them, and directly led to the capture of an al-Qaeda operative believed to have masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings.
Mr Bush claimed the publication of the New York Times report made it harder to win the 'war on terror'.
And Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives said the New York Times was putting its 'arrogant, elitist, left-wing agenda before the interests of the American people'. Mr King was speaking on Fox News.
In December, the New York Times published a report saying that the US President had authorised the NSA to eavesdrop, without a warrant, on thousands of telephone calls made by US citizens.
That disclosure had also prompted charges that the paper was undermining US national security.
