WASHINGTON – President Bush said Thursday that he will delay his five-nation trip to Africa if necessary to help members of the House pass a bill governing U.S. eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists.

The president and House Democrats are engaged in a game of political brinkmanship, each blaming the other for the pending expiration of a key intelligence law. The president argued that the House has plenty of time to pass a bill.

“If we have to delay (the trip), we’ll delay,” Bush said.

Bush is backing the Senate-passed bill, which includes retroactive protection from lawsuits that telecommunications companies are facing because they cooperated with government eavesdropping following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The House has not passed that measure, and the law expires at midnight Saturday. The House bill also does not provide immunity from lawsuits for the telecommunications companies.

“There is really no excuse for letting this critical legislation expire,” Bush said, his second statement on the bill at the White House in two days.

Rather than wait for the House and Senate to negotiate differences in their versions of the intelligence legislation, Bush wants a rubber-stamp of the Senate bill so he can sign it into law immediately. Bush has said he will not approve another extension, and House Republicans helped defeat a 21-day extension of the law on Thursday.

Bush said that “it would be a mistake” if Congress allowed the law to expire. “Members of Congress knew all along that this deadline was approaching. They set it themselves. They’ve had more than six months to discuss and deliberate. And now they must act.”

He denied claims that the issue had turned into a political game.

“I certainly hope not,” Bush said. “I can assure you that al-Qaida in their planning isn’t thinking about politics, they are thinking about hurting the American people again.”