WASHINGTON – America must overhaul the way it reviews foreign acquisitions of companies involving American ports, two key GOP lawmakers said yesterday, calling the Bush administration’s handling of the Dubai deal flawed.

The chief executive of Dubai Ports World, meanwhile, insisted his Dubai firm posed no security risk to America and said that he expected the proposed $6.8 billion purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. will be completed.

“All the authorities are comfortable with the security measures that we take,” CEO Mohammed Sharaf said. “As far as we are concerned, the deal is going to go through, and the British government has approved it.”

“There are big consequences for the British market if it doesn’t go through because investors are waiting for the money,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

The Bush administration, through a secretive board headed by the Treasury Department, initially approved DP World’s purchase of the London company, which would let the company take over significant operations at several major American ports.

In the wake of a bipartisan backlash, the administration agreed last month to a 45-day investigation of potential security risks. Under that review, the American government could block the portion of the deal involving the takeover of American port operations even if the British deal is completed.

Yesterday, lawmakers said reform of the review process was needed.

The problem is “the committee that conducts the review is weighed towards the Treasury Department,” Senator Collins, a Republican of Maine, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said.

“I think we need to scrap the committee, start again, constitute it within the Department of Homeland Security,” Ms. Collins said, adding that the panel should include a member of the intelligence committee. “The process now is deeply flawed.”

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican of California, and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he wants to scuttle the Dubai deal and then require foreign governments to divest from critical American installations unless they pass a review by the departments of defense and homeland security.

“I trust President Bush, but I think he needs to get more information,” Mr. Hunter said, calling Dubai a dangerous place. “I think they looked at it at a superficial level, and they didn’t get those intelligence briefs.”

Ms. Collins and Mr. Hunter, who appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” said they were introducing bills to revamp the review process to ensure bad actors aren’t allowed to take control over major American operations.

Mr. Hunter, one of the administration’s most trusted allies, has been particularly critical of the deal, calling the United Arab Emirates “a bazaar for terrorist nations.” Ms. Collins says it’s too early to tell under the current review whether Dubai is a terror threat.

“There is a great deal of dubiousness about how thorough this review will be, how careful it will be, and, most of all, how independent it will be,” Senator a Schumer, a Democrat of New York, said on CNN, noting that President Bush had already said he supports the deal.

Ms. Collins and Mr. Hunter downplayed the notion that Democrats could effectively capitalize on the controversy in November’s congressional midterm elections.

“I don’t think it’s going to hurt our party,” Mr. Hunter said. “I think the Republicans in Congress have a good record for security.”