United States President George W Bush said Monday that he is asking Congress to create the position of a national intelligence director to serve as his principal adviser on countering terrorism.

"Our goal is an integrated, unified national intelligence effort," he said.

Bush wants the director to be appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. He said the director will be charged with overseeing and coordinating the 'foreign and domestic activities of the intelligence community'.

Creating such a position is a key recommendation of the so-called 9/11 commission, a bipartisan panel established by Congress to investigate events before, during and immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

"We're a nation in danger," Bush warned Monday, as three major East Coast financial districts operated under heightened security.

Under this reorganisation, said Bush, the CIA will be managed by a separate director.  "The national intelligence director will assume the broader responsibility of leading the intelligence commuity across our government."

Creating the position of the national intelligence director will require a substantial revision of the 1947 National Security Act. "I look forward to working with the members of Congress to move ahead on this important reform," he said.

The 9/11 Commision, he pointed out, also made several recommendations about Congress itself. "I strongly agree with the Commission's recommendation that oversight of intelligence and of the homeland security must be restructured and made more effective. There are too many committees with overlapping jurisdiction, which wastes time and makes it difficult for meaningful oversight and reform."

"The National Counter-terrorism Centre," Bush said, "will build on the really good analytical work of the
Terrorist Threat Integration Centre, and will become our government's knowledge bank for information about known and suspected terrorists."

He said the new centre will coordinate and monitor counter-terrorism plans and activities of all government agencies and departments to ensure effective joint action, and that our efforts are unified in priority and purpose.

"The centre will also be responsible for preparing the daily terrorism threat report for the President and senior officials."

The Director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, Bush said, will report to the national intelligence director, once that position is created.

Until then, he said, the centre will report to the Director of the CIA. "Given the growing threat of weapons (of mass destruction) and missile proliferation in our world," said Bush, "it may also be necessary to create a similar centre in our government to bring together our intelligence analysis planning and operations to track and prevent the  spread of weapons of mass destruction."

Bush said that he asked the Commission headed by Judge Laurence Silberman and Senator Churck Robb to determine the merits of creating such a centre.

"We will act on other recommendations made by the commission in coming days I will issue a series of directives to various departments to underscore and further outline essential steps for the US government on the war on terror.

"All relevant agencies must complete the task of adopting common databases and procedures so that intelligence and homeland security information can be shared and searched effectively, consistent with privacy and civil liberties."

He said the FBI director will continue his restructuring of the Bureau to create a specialised work force for collecting and anlaysing domestic intelligence on terrorism.

The acting CIA director will continue to increase efforts already underway to strengthen human intelligence and analytical capabilities.