WASHINGTON, March 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush may seek to combine two federal agencies charged with U.S. border security in a bid to plug holes made obvious by the September 11 terrorist attacks, the White House said.

Top aides have urged Bush to merge the Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that includes the Border Patrol, but "he has not made any decision at this time," said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer.

"When he has something to share, he'll share it," Fleischer said, quoted by CNN.

The spokesman said such a change - which has long been sought by Homeland Security director Tom Ridge - would require congressional approval.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday, March 19, that top Bush advisers had agreed to combine the INS and Border Patrol, which are part of the Justice Department, with Customs, which is part of the Treasury Department.

"A recommendation has been received by the president that would merge agencies in a way to help enforce the borders more tightly," Fleischer told reporters.

Fleischer said the move would require congressional legislation and the new agency would fall under one department and would not be under Ridge's jurisdiction, but that of the Justice Department. This only after the president approves the recommendation and Congress signs off on the plan.

Although Fleischer did not reveal what Bush will do, he did present how the debate is currently framed.

"There is a school of thought that you can have better controls and more effective ways of welcoming people to this country, welcoming trade to this country, while keeping people out who would do us harm as a result of consolidation," he said. "This is a fairly consistent approach... when it comes to whether or not the most effective ways are to consolidate what different agencies do or let the agencies continue in their separate areas and just coordinate," CNN reported.

"This is an age-old debate in the federal government and it is an important one," Fleischer added.

Other officials said the merger would be the first step in a larger plan to improve security along the borders with Mexico and Canada, as well as at airports where international flights arrive into the U.S., USA Today reported.

Partly because of intense opposition from the INS and Customs, which have long been rivals, similar proposals to merge the agencies have been rejected in the past, but senior Bush administration officials believe there might be more support now for the change after the September 11 attacks, CNN reports.

Earlier this month, Bush declared himself "plenty hot" by the revelation that two September 11 hijackers had received posthumous notification that their student visas had been approved - a sore embarrassment for the INS.

"The INS needs to be reformed," said the U.S. president. "It's inexcusable."

CNN reports that Fleischer said the president considers border security "a very important priority given everything that has happened since September 11." He said the goal is to "make certain our borders are free and open to people who come here...on a regular basis... free and open to commerce which is a vital part of America's economy [but] will slam shut people who come here to do us harm."

White House officials said Bush wants to increase security while speeding the processing of 500 million people who enter the U.S. each year, saying improved technology would help find would-be terrorists. Bush's budget calls for an increase of $2.1 billion for securing borders, up from $9 billion currently, reports USA Today.

The newspaper also reported that INS Commissioner James Ziglar, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, acknowledged that his agency's procedures “were clearly not the most efficient and certainly not the most logical.” During a House panel hearing later in the day, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Ziglar: “I consider your organization today to be worse than useless.”

The news of the potential merger comes as Bush heads later this week for a United Nations conference in Mexico, where leaders are expected to raise questions about U.S. immigration policy.

Although the U.S. president is expected to discuss border issues on Thursday, March 21, in El Paso, Texas, Fleischer could not say if the president would use that event to announce his decision.