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DPW has offered £3.9bn ($6.8bn) for P&O, which operates ports in key US cities including New York and Miami. The moves to block DPW have been widely criticised inside and outside the US. 'Hurt free trade' DPW is a Dubai-based company and the governor of the United Arab Emirates' central bank criticised US opposition to the takeover. "The American side that opposed the deal mixed economic and investment matters with issues of security and politics and this is the wrong approach," said Sultan bin Nasser al-Suwaidi. "It will hurt free trade and international investment. Trade and investment relations with the United States must now be viewed from a new perspective." Saudi Arabia's central bank governor Hamad Saud al-Sayyari said that the furore surrounding the takeover had disappointed many people in the Middle East. "It is OK for US companies to buy everywhere but it is not OK for other companies to buy in the US?" he asked. In the US, politicians were unrepentant over their stance. Speaking on television over the weekend, Mr Hunter said that the government's Committee on Foreign Investment had not carried out its job of vetting foreign investment properly. Shifting focus Under the proposed bill, the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security would have to identify facilities that were key to national defence. That facility would then be kept in US hands, with a five-year period of divestment, Mr Hunter said. In an effort to defuse the row, last week DPW said it would transfer its US ports business to a "US entity". While DPW did not say it would sell the subsidiaries responsible for the ports, the White House has been suggesting that this will be the probable outcome. DPW made the move as members of the House of Representatives and the Senate warned they would block the takeover over security concerns. Buying P&O would have made DPW one of the world's three-biggest port operators, with 51 terminals in 30 countries and an interest in more than 20 US ports. Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk