The White House reached agreement with dissenting Republicans on guidelines for the treatment and interrogation of terror suspects on Thursday.

The consensus was key to the party, just weeks ahead of November's congressional elections.

The compromise agreement ensures that detainees are handled according to Geneva Convention standards for treatment of prisoners and not a more narrow interpretation that President George W. Bush had sought.

The accord, however, explicitly states that Bush has the authority to enforce the Geneva standards and enumerates acts that constitute a war crime, including torture, rape, biological experiments and cruel and inhuman treatment.

The Bush administration had argued that the Geneva Convention standards did not apply to terrorism suspects and were vague, leaving CIA agents to operate in legal uncertainty when dealing with suspects.

"I'm pleased to say that this agreement preserves the single most potent tool we have in protecting America and foiling terrorist attacks, and that is the CIA program to question the world's most dangerous terrorists and get their secrets," Bush said from Florida after the agreement was announced.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected the government's argument that the widely accepted conventions regarding prisoners of war do not apply to those held at the U.S. naval prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and also found the administration's military commissions to be illegal.

Bush then said he would introduce legislation in Congress to work around the ruling, but senators John McCain (Arizona), John Warner (Virginia) and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), vowed to fight any attempt to narrowly interpret what constituted abuse of prisoners.

"There's no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved," said McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for six years.

Bush had also faced criticism from his former secretary of state, Colin Powell.

Powell said earlier this month that narrowly defining the Geneva Convention so that the CIA could conduct harsh interrogations would be a mistake, leading other nations to question the "moral basis" of the U.S. war on terrorism and putting captured American soldiers at risk.

The White House will also reportedly compromise by allowing detainees an unclassified summary of evidence against them, though it wouldn't include the most sensitive details that could be used to plan attacks against the U.S.

The senators agreed to a proposal by the administration retroactive to 1997 that would prevent CIA and military personnel from being prosecuted for past treatment.

With files from Associated Press