WASHINGTON - President Bush met with lawmakers yesterday to press for the creation of a new Cabinet department for homeland security that would direct America's efforts to prevent terrorism within its borders.

Looking ahead to Congress' central role in shaping the new department, Bush urged lawmakers to avoid a "turf battle" and prepare to yield some of their control over government agencies.

"This is going to be a tough battle because we're going to be stepping on some people's toes," Bush said in a stop at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.

"When you take power away from one person in Washington, it tends to make them nervous. So we're just going to have to keep the pressure on the people in the United States Congress to do the right thing."

The president, who met yesterday with about a dozen Democrats and Republicans, has said he would like the new Cabinet department to begin working by Jan. 1. Its proposed $37 billion budget and nearly 170,000 employees would mostly be taken from other agencies.

By the end of the month, the White House plans to move legislation to Capitol Hill that would establish the department, which the president proposed in a speech Thursday night.

Bush said he would send Tom Ridge, the White House director of homeland security and the expected new Cabinet secretary, to argue the case for the department before congressional committees.

For months, Bush has rejected Congress' requests to have Ridge testify to Congress about his strategy for protecting the nation against terrorism. The president has argued that as a member of the White House staff, Ridge should not have to give testimony.

The White House has agreed to have Ridge testify - but only as an advocate of the new Cabinet department and not about the administration's plans for fighting terrorism. The White House said it was taking a page from President Jimmy Carter, who sent a top adviser, James R. Schlesinger, to Congress in 1977 to testify on behalf of a new Energy Department.

Congress is reacting favorably at least to the concept of a Department of Homeland Security. But lawmakers and congressional aides said one of the most difficult issues would be the likely turf battles - not only in Congress but also among the various agencies that would lose both money and personnel under the Bush plan.

Others pointed out that the FBI and CIA, which failed to share intelligence findings before the Sept. 11 attacks, would remain independent of the new department and outside its authority.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, conducted a hearing Thursday on the FBI's intelligence lapses, offered tentative backing for the Bush plan.

'Not kidding ourselves'

"Is everybody in favor of real homeland security? Yes," Leahy said. "I think everyone wants to work with the president. If he has a better idea, we'll be supportive. In the meantime, I'm much more interested in plugging the holes that we saw in our hearing."

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the Connecticut Democrat whose own bill to create a new homeland security agency has been working its way through Congress, said there was general bipartisan backing for the president's plan, though some on the Hill will likely oppose it. Indeed, Bush's proposal will face scrutiny from 88 committees and subcommittees in Congress.

"We all agreed it's critical to do this as quickly as possible," Lieberman said. But, he added, "We're not kidding ourselves. There will be a lot of arguments about why we ought not to do this."

Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott said he expected that several committees might insist on taking the lead in crafting the legislation.

'Will take a good effort'

"It's going to be a challenge figuring out how to handle this bill," Lott said. "It should be finished this year, but it will take a good effort to get it done."

The department would be divided into four sections: border and transportation security; emergency preparedness and response; chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear countermeasures; and information analysis and infrastructure protection.

Under the information section, the FBI, the CIA and other agencies would send intelligence and other information to be analyzed by employees of the Department of Homeland Security.

Some of the sharpest criticism since the Sept. 11 attacks has centered on the failure of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to share and analyze information that might have prevented the attacks. One such warning sign was a memo from an FBI agent that said Osama bin Laden might be sending some of his followers to U.S. flight schools to train for terrorist operations.

Yesterday, Ari Fleischer, Bush's spokesman, touched on this issue in discussing the need for a Cabinet-level department.

"As a result of this new department," Fleischer said, "there will be one other place for a centralized sharing of data that goes way beyond the FBI and CIA - that will get information or intelligence provided by Customs, by NSA, by a host of federal agencies that also have their eyes and ears open and their antennae up."

Still, Lieberman said, he wondered whether the new department secretary would have the authority to obtain the necessary intelligence from the CIA, the FBI and other agencies.

In response to such concerns, Ridge said Bush's order for agencies to work closely with the new department would "ensure that we get access to all the information we need."

Bush said: "The FBI and CIA are changing. They understand that there has been gaps in intelligence-sharing."

Questions over analysts

Though the new department would be charged with analyzing information from other agencies, lawmakers and others said no government intelligence analysts appear to be assigned to the department's information office, and neither would the department be authorized to gather its own intelligence.

The nearly 1,000 personnel for the information office would be drawn from five agencies: the FBI, the Pentagon, the Commerce and Energy departments, and the General Services Administration. Yet there is no indication that those employees include intelligence analysts.

Analysts "have to have experts in their own areas - FBI, CIA and the Drug Enforcement Agency," said Kenneth Allard, a retired Army colonel and senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "What you're going to need is a mixing of interdepartment analysts."

Rep. William M. "Mac" Thornberry, a Texas Republican and co-sponsor of a homeland security bill in the House, said the new department would have to confront the issue of intelligence analysts.

"We're going to have to transfer them or hire them," Thornberry said.

Allard also said the Bush proposal makes no mention of National Guard or Reserve troops, who would be necessary for border security.

But Thornberry dismissed that concern, saying the new department's focus would be civilian, not military. He also pointed out that the Pentagon has created a new military structure, the Northern Command, that would deal with homeland security.