LANGLEY, Va. – President Bush promised CIA employees yesterday they would retain an “incredibly vital” role in safeguarding the nation’s security despite a reorganization that diminishes the agency’s 60-year dominance of the intelligence community.

“I know there’s some uncertainty about what this reform means to the people of the CIA. And I wanted to assure them that the reforms will strengthen their efforts and make it easier for them to do their job, not harder,” Mr. Bush told reporters during a morale-boosting visit to the spy agency.

Mr. Bush’s trip came a day after Porter Goss, the CIA’s director of central intelligence, complained publicly that the new law had “a huge amount of ambiguity in it,” creating confusion about his relationship with John Negroponte, Mr. Bush’s nominee to the new post of national director of intelligence, and with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.

Mr. Negroponte, if confirmed by the Senate, would have sweeping authority over 15 different intelligence agencies.

White House aides said Mr. Bush’s visit had been planned before Mr. Goss’s remarks, delivered in a speech on Wednesday at Simi Valley, Calif. However, the CIA tour was added to Mr. Bush’s public schedule only late Wednesday.

Out of earshot of reporters, Mr. Bush spoke to a large assembly of CIA employees, drawing loud cheers. He also received a private intelligence briefing.

In his remarks to reporters, Mr. Bush reiterated that the hunt goes on for Osama bin Laden, the terrorist blamed for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“We spend every day gathering information to locate Osama bin Laden and Zawahri and obviously people like Zarqawi,” Mr. Bush said. Ayman al-Zawahri is Mr. bin Laden’s top deputy. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is the top Al Qaeda figure in Iraq.

“One of the reasons I came out here was to remind people that we’ve had great successes” in running down other Al Qaeda leaders, Mr. Bush said. “But there is more work to be done. … It’s a matter of time before we bring those people to justice.”

With Mr. Goss at this side, Mr. Bush said he had discussed the jurisdiction issue with the director of central intelligence “because I don’t want there to be any interruption of intelligence coming to the White House, and there won’t be.”

He noted that Mr. Goss comes to the White House each morning to brief him personally on the latest intelligence developments, “and that, of course, will go on.”

Furthermore, Mr. Bush said, “we don’t even have Ambassador Negroponte confirmed yet. In other words, it’s hard to implement reforms without somebody being the reformer. And so, the process is ongoing.”

Mr. Negroponte’s last posting was as ambassador to Iraq.

“One of the purposes of the whole process is to make sure that information flows are smooth and that efforts are coordinated,” Mr. Bush said. While noting that the CIA would remain “the center of the intelligence community,” he said “there’s a lot of other intelligence-gathering operations around government.

“And the job of Ambassador Negroponte is to take the information and make sure it is coordinated,” he said.

Mr. Bush said he came to the CIA “to assure the people here that their contribution was incredibly vital to the security of the United States, and together we’ve achieved a lot in securing this country.”

Mr. Bush talked about the hunt for the elusive Mr. bin Laden in response to a reporter’s question at the CIA, but he also brought up the subject himself earlier in the day at the swearing-in ceremony of Michael Chertoff, the new Secretary of Homeland Security.