WASHINGTON, March 8: US President George W. Bush vetoed a legislation on Saturday that would have prevented CIA from using waterboarding and other controversial methods to interrogate prisoners.

In his weekly radio address, Mr Bush said he vetoed the measure because it would have banned interrogation techniques that prevent terrorist attacks. He described the current method for interrogating terror suspects as one of the “most valuable tools in the war on terror”.But many in the US Congress, human rights organisations and in other countries disagree. They see waterboarding, in which drowning is simulated, as a form of torture forbidden under Geneva conventions for protecting prisoner rights.

In December, the House of Representatives approved legislation that would have restricted intelligence agents from using such interrogation methods. The Senate endorsed it in February despite White House warnings it would be vetoed.

The legislation would have banned the use of methods such as waterboarding, sensory deprivation, temperature extremes and extended forced standing to break the prisoners who refuse to speak.

The US Army banned such methods in 2006 but the CIA had been using them on Al Qaeda prisoners after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

The CIA still would have been allowed to use nine interrogation techniques listed in the US Army field manual.“The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror the CIA programme to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives,” said Mr Bush while announcing his veto.

“This programme has produced critical intelligence that has helped us prevent a number of attacks … including a planned attack on the US consulate in Karachi,” he said.

“Were it not for this programme, our intelligence community believes that Al Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland.”

Democrats had warned Mr Bush not to veto the legislation.

“President Bush’s veto will be one of the most shameful acts of his presidency. Unless Congress overrides the veto, it will go down in history as a flagrant insult to the rule of law and a serious stain on the good name of America in the eyes of the world,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Waterboarding is a torture technique that consists of immobilizing a person on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages.

The subject experiences drowning effect in a controlled environment and he believes the death is imminent.