Richard Mills, a spokesman for the US Trade Representative's office, said the White House would send Congress a final bill in early July to implement the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

"We are optimistic that the Australia FTA will pass both houses of Congress this summer with broad bipartisan support," Mills said.

The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-7 late on Thursday against sending the White House detailed legislative recommendations for implementing the pact that included a provision that both the Bush administration and Congressional Research Service said was unconstitutional.

Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said he could not "in good conscience" vote to send recommendations containing the provision, which would require the Senate Finance Committee and House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee to approve any Bush administration decision to waive beef import safeguards that could be triggered under the pact.

The panel narrowly approved the so-called legislative veto on a mostly party line vote on Wednesday, when Sen Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, joined 10 Democrats in support of the measure. The same day, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a set of recommendations without the provision.

In a statement, Grassley urged the White House to follow the House Ways and Means recommendations and Mills said that is what the Bush administration intended to do.

Snowe joined other Republicans in voting against sending the amended recommendations to Bush. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a Massachusetts senator who serves on the panel, voted by proxy for the amendment and for sending Bush the committee's recommendations with the provision.

Under the 2002 trade act, Congress cannot amend any trade agreements negotiated by the White House, so the informal committee sessions were the only opportunity for lawmakers to shape legislation implementing the Australia pact.