PRESIDENT BUSH angrily rejected accusations yesterday that he had become dictatorial as he vowed to continue a controversial secret eavesdropping programme on people inside the US.

Mr Bush, accused by Democrats of beginning to govern like Big Brother, aggressively defended his authorisation of a secret wiretapping programme that bypassed the legal requirement for court-issued warrants.

The existence of the programme, leaked to the press last week, has caused a political storm in the US and led to calls by Republicans and Democrats for congressional hearings, and increased accusations that Mr Bush has used the War on Terror to expand his presidential powers beyond the law.

But in an end-of-year White House press conference, Mr Bush sought to defend forcefully those powers when he believes his ability to fight the War on Terror is being eroded by his political opponents.

He said that a Justice Department investigation had been launched to discover who committed the “shameful act” of revealing the covert programme. “The fact that we’re discussing this programme is helping the enemy,” Mr Bush said.

He added that the programme was legal, because “as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief I have the constitutional responsibility and the constitutional authority to protect our country”. The President said that he would continue the programme “for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill American citizens”.

After more than four years without a terrorist attack inside the US, and as the September 11 hijackings fade from view, a politically weakened Mr Bush is suddenly struggling to persuade Americans that the terrorist threat is as urgent as ever, and that an erosion of executive authority is dangerous. On Friday Senate Democrats, helped by four Republicans, blocked the renewal of the USA Patriot Act, Mr Bush’s major anti-terrorism law, citing civil liberty concerns. On Thursday Mr Bush was also forced, after months of opposition, to back a new law explicitly banning the torture of terrorist suspects in US custody.

Asked yesterday, in light of the wiretapping programme, if there were any limits on his presidential power, Mr Bush said: “To say unchecked power basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the President, which I strongly reject.”

Mr Bush’s appearance came after a prime-time address to the nation on Sunday night, in which he admitted a series of mistakes in Iraq and said that last week’s elections “will not mean an end of violence”.

In his fifth speech on Iraq in a fortnight, Mr Bush insisted that the US was winning the war but he struck a remarkably humble and realistic tone. He called the war “more difficult than expected” and spoke of more sacrifice.

He addressed Americans who opposed the war or who have turned against it. “I do not expect you to support everything I do, but tonight I have a request: do not give in to despair, and do not give up on this fight for freedom.”

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