A United Arab Emirates company has offered to delay it takeover of operations at six U.S. ports following political outcry over the deal in Washington. The state-controlled firm — Dubai Ports World — said it would not yet exercise control over the ports due to the controversy. President Bush has backed the deal but it has been widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. On Thursday Democrats, saying they were concerned for national security, called for a 45-day investigation into the deal that would put the Dubai-based company in charge of six of the nation’s largest seaports: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans, New York and Newark, N.J. Critics of the deal have noted that the UAE was the birthplace of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers and that it was one of only three countries to ever recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate rulers. But on Thursday Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England defended the deal saying that the United Arab Emirates is now an ally of the United States. Companies from China, Denmark, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan already run docks here in the United States.