WASHINGTON — In the waning months of his administration, President Bush is proposing merit pay for foreign service officers who promote democracy and human rights.

A section of a speech Mr. Bush delivered yesterday that called for merit pay, reviewing what he has dubbed his “freedom agenda,” was excised from the final draft, administration officials said. Nonetheless, the classified directive the president signed last month on American policy to promote democracy and human rights suggests that American diplomats receive some financial rewards for their work in the field.

“In the national security presidential directive, there are elements for foreign service officers for training and the potential for financial incentives for democracy promotion and human rights work,” a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said yesterday. “The president’s speech today was intended to focus on the broader freedom agenda and not the directive.”

The proposal to link pay to the promotion of human rights has been considered by State Department reform proposals since the 1990s. The idea has come under some criticism in the past from the diplomatic corps because such factors are already considered in some cases for promotion within the foreign service.

“It’s my understanding that even if the White House issues a national security directive, that does not automatically mean that there is an authorization for a change in the pay structure for federal employees, in this case members of the foreign service,” the vice president of the American Foreign Service Association, Steven Kashkett, said in an interview. “My understanding is that Congress would ultimately have to approve this change.”

Mr. Bush met with a number of foreign dissidents yesterday before his speech at the Ronald Reagan building here. He said he had instructed senior officials in American embassies to increase their contact with political prisoners.

“To ensure our government continues to speak out for those who have no other voice, I recently issued a directive instructing all senior U.S. officials serving in undemocratic countries to maintain regular contact with political dissidents and democracy activists,” he said. “The challenge for future presidents and future Congresses is to ensure that America always stands with those seeking freedom — and never hesitates to shine the light of conscience on abuses of human rights across the world.”

The president has spoken more plainly about marrying American values to American power than any of his predecessors. But many of Mr. Bush’s original reform and democracy proposals have been neutered in the final years of his second term, including money the State Department initially proposed for bolstering activists in Iran, which now is going almost exclusively to American-based programs and alternatives to Iran’s press.