President Barack Obama meets with King Abdullah of Jordan in the Oval office at the White House in Washington on

U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday did not rule out prosecutions for those who formulated memos on harsh interrogation methods for terror suspects.

The Obama administration last week released several Office of Legal Counsel memos that approved of harsh interrogation techniques -- such a waterboarding, which simulates drowning -- on terror suspects. In the early days of his presidency Obama discontinued the harsh techniques.

"With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the perimeters of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that," Obama said during a White House media availability with Jordan's King Abdullah.

Obama repeated his statement that he didn't think it would be appropriate for CIA agents to be prosecuted for operating "within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House."

However, he said he was concerned with circumstances surrounding the released memos becoming "so politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations."

If and when a "further accounting" becomes necessary, Congress should look for ways an examination could be done in a bipartisan fashion "outside of the typical hearing process that can sometimes break down and break it entirely along party lines," Obama said.

"I'm not suggesting that ... that should be done, but I'm saying, if you've got a choice, I think it's very important for the American people to feel (an investigation) is being done in order to learn some lessons so that we move forward in an effective way. "

US President Barack Obama is to visit the CIA, in a bid to reassure staff stung by the release of memos detailing harsh interrogation techniques


Mr Obama will talk about the importance of the CIA's mission


The visit follows comments by a former CIA chief who said the memos would limit its ability to pursue terrorists.

Mr Obama released the memos last week but said CIA staff would not be prosecuted for the methods, which critics say are torture.

It has been revealed that two al-Qaeda suspects were waterboarded 266 times.

Quoting one of the memos, The New York Times said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed planner of the 9/11 attacks, was subjected to the technique, which simulates drowning, 183 times.

The method was used on another suspect, Abu Zubaydah, at least 83 times.

BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson says this contrasts starkly with previous accounts given by US intelligence sources that implied both men told all after only the briefest exposure to the technique.

The new information could hardly have emerged at a more sensitive time for President Obama, our correspondent says.

Though highly critical during his election campaign of the CIA's methods, he adds, since coming to office Mr Obama has been anxious to boost morale at the agency and to draw a line under the controversies of its recent past.

CIA 'still exposed'

Mr Obama is expected to deliver a public message on "the importance of the CIA's mission" when he visits the organisation's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.


He will also hold private meetings with staff. Correspondents say he will seek to renew assurances made last week that agents and officials who authorised or carried out harsh interrogation methods will not be prosecuted.

The former head of the CIA, Michael Hayden, who ran the agency under President George W Bush, said CIA staff might still be open to congressional probes or civil actions by those subjected to the methods.

"There will be more revelations. There will be more commissions. There will be more investigations," he told Fox News network on Sunday,

"And this to an agency ... that is at war and is on the front lines of defending America."

Gen Hayden added that the release of the memos would make it more difficult to get useful information from suspected terrorists.

"I think that teaching our enemies our outer limits, by taking techniques off the table, we have made it more difficult in a whole host of circumstances I can imagine, more difficult for CIA officers to defend the nation," he said.

He also denied that such methods were ineffective.

"The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work," he said.

Other methods mentioned in the memos include week-long sleep deprivation, forced nudity and the use of painful positions.

Mr Obama on Thursday said he would not prosecute under anti-torture laws CIA personnel who relied in good faith on Bush administration legal opinions issued after the 11 September attacks.

But he has been criticised by human rights organisations and UN officials, who say charges are necessary to prevent future abuses and to hold people accountable.