President Bush yesterday ordered a second security review of a United Arab Emirates-based company set to take over operation at six American ports after the firm, Dubai Ports World, offered to submit to further investigation.

Opponents of the deal, who come from both the Democratic and Republican parties, were encouraged by a report that the Department of Homeland Security at first objected to the takeover, though its objections were settled before the Bush administration on January 17 approved the firm’s $6.8 billion purchase of the British Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

Three senators critical of the deal, Senator Schumer, Clinton, and Menendez, a Democrat of New Jersey, said before news of the security review was announced that they would introduce legislation today requiring the Bush administration to conduct a second investigation into the deal and provide its report to congress. Spokesmen for the three senators did not return calls for comment after Mr. Bush’s statement.

“The devil’s in the details,” Mr. Schumer told reporters yesterday. “If the report is completed and kept secret and only given to the president, who has already come out for the deal, it will not reassure Americans.” He added that any unclassified sections of the report should be made available to the public. The Treasury Department, which runs the committee in charge of such reviews, has said findings of its application approvals are confidential.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Menendez previously announced they would introduce legislation to ban foreign governments from operating American ports. At a news conference with Mr. Schumer yesterday, they said they still planned to pursue the bill in the future.

“Our focus right now is … stopping the clock, making sure Congress has a role, and making sure the American people are protected,” Mr. Menendez said in response to a question from The New York Sun. “There’s a broader question, which is: What critical structure of the country should not be in the operational control of foreign governments? And we’ll continue to pursue that as well.”

Mr. Schumer added that he agreed with Mr. Menendez and Mrs. Clinton, heading off speculation that New York’s two senators were competing to lead the opposition to this deal.

The majority leader of the Senate, Bill Frist, said in a statement yesterday he will recommend the Senate wait for the results of the second investigation before acting on legislation to delay or block the deal.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a body composed of the secretaries of 12 different federal agencies, approved the deal without finding a broader review necessary. The Associated Press quotes a person familiar with the committee’s security report on DP World saying that American intelligence agencies were “unable to locate any derogatory information on the company.” The person spoke only on condition of anonymity because the report was classified.

Another critic of the deal who was set to introduce legislation similar to Mr. Schumer’s, Rep. Peter King, said he thought the White House’s announcement made emergency attempts to delay the deal unnecessary. Mr. King, a Republican of New York and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, was quoted by AP as saying, “If this is what it appears to be, to me there’s no need at this time to go forward” with emergency legislation. “Obviously we have to hold it in reserve and see what happens,” he said.

Should the deal go though, DP World, owned by a United Arab Emirates government holding company known simply as the Corporate Office, would acquire a 50% stake in a company that controlled operations at the Port Newark Container Terminal. A.P Moller-Maersk, a Copenhagen-based company, owns the other half of the company. DP World also would acquire control over operations at the New York Cruise Terminal, as well as at ports in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Miami.