President George W. Bush yesterday stoutly defended his right to strike a new balance between civil liberties and security, saying failure to reauthorise the Patriot Act would be "inexcusable" and accusing those who revealed spying operations on US soil of a "shameful act".

The president, facing mounting challenges to the way he has prosecuted the war on terror, defended his actions in the name of presidential authority. He denied that he had accumulated "unchecked power", noting that the idea ascribed "some kind of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject".