CAIRO, Egypt – With Washington in a pitched battle over a proposed to deal to give a UAE firm control of six major ports, Secretary of State Rice yesterday landed in the Emirate capital for a conference of Gulf nations.

Ms. Rice yesterday affirmed again that the United Arab Emirates are strong allies and noted that more Navy ships dock in Dubai than any other port in the region. Her senior aides said the furor over the port deal would likely come up informally on the margins of the Gulf Cooperation Council summit on Friday.

In Washington, President Bush after a Cabinet meeting tried to calm tensions over the deal, saying, “We wouldn’t go forward if we were concerned about the security of the United States of America.”

While America’s attention is focused on the arrangement of Dubai Ports World to purchase the contracts to manage the six American ports from a British company, P&O, the secretary of state will also be focused on the rising tensions in Iraq and an effort to bring the Gulf nations closer to America’s position on Iran’s nuclear program. So far her diplomatic trip has failed to persuade two key American allies – Saudi Arabia and Egypt – to agree to condition future aid to the Palestinian Authority on the ascendant Hamas’s decision to renounce violence and terror. On Wednesday, the Saudi foreign minister bluntly said, while standing next to Ms. Rice, that his country would continue to fund a Hamas-led authority in Ramallah.

On the row over the American ports yesterday, Ms. Rice said: “We have a really strong ally in the UAE. I mean, our naval activity with the UAE is probably more active and more intensive than almost anyplace else in the region. This is a very good ally. This is a thoroughly vetted deal. And, you know, if more details need to be made available, then I’m sure they will be, but I think the deal itself is simply recognition that this process turned up no concerns.”

The New York Sun reported yesterday the Emirates have been particularly helpful to America in the area of financial intelligence. Dubai is considered a banking center for the oil-rich region and the principality’s intelligence service has shared detailed financial records of suspected terrorists and even officials from neighboring Iran.

Yesterday the chairman of DP World told the Reuters news agency that he was pleased about Mr. Bush’s threat to veto any move from Congress to undermine his company’s deal. “We are very encouraged by what Mr. Bush has said. We are happy that he takes this view,” Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem told the news agency. “Of course we are confident it will go ahead. There’s no question about it. We would not have raised all this money and done so much work if it was not going to.”

In Washington, the pressure heated up. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced yesterday, as the Sun reported it would, its intention to take legal action to block DP World from taking over operations at the port of Newark. In Washington, Democratic senators rallied against the proposed deal.

Responding to news reports that the proper national security checks on the DP World deal were not followed, Senator Schumer, a Democrat of New York, said, “These new revelations ask more questions than they answer. To give up accepted and necessary procedures to protect port security in return for Dubai Ports World sharing certain types of information is a trade off that most Americans would certainly question.”

Mr. Schumer yesterday said he was confident legislation he has sponsored in the Senate to force the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to renew an inquiry into the national security impact of the deal for 45 days would pass. The legislation mandates the secretaries of the Treasury and Homeland Security to report to Congress on the board’s findings. An identical measure is being sponsored by Rep. Peter King, a Republican of New York, in the House.