It added that, "Consistent with its original purpose as a temporary program scheduled to end on Dec. 31, 2005, and the need to encourage further development of the private market, the administration opposes extension of TRIA in its current form."

Importantly, the report also outlines several cutbacks in the scope of the current program the Bush administration will demand in an extension, if any.

One of these is the need "to significantly reduce taxpayer exposure," the report said.

The administration's position outlined by the report is that it will accept an extension only if it includes a significant increase–to $500 million–of the event size that triggers coverage.

It calls for increases in the dollar deductibles and percentage co-payments, and eliminates from the program certain lines of insurance, such as commercial auto, general liability and other smaller lines, "that are far less subject to aggregation risks and should be left to the private market."

The current threshold for event size is $5 million. The current retention level for individual insurers is 15 percent, after rising from 10 percent in the first year of the program and 12.5 percent in the second year of the program.

The administration also made clear it would take a tough line on litigation in any new bill, a view that insurance industry representatives said would make extension of the program more difficult.

Insurer group lobbyists said Democrats are likely to balk at litigation limits in any legislation. Several of them noted that demands for tort reform language during talks on the prior bill resulted in it being killed in 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attack, and delaying ultimate passage of the bill until November 2002.

The report said, "It is also important to keep in mind that the program would cover damages awarded in litigation against policyholders following a terrorist attack."

It argued that current litigation rules "would allow unscrupulous trial lawyers to profit from a terrorist attack and would expose the American taxpayer to excessive and inappropriate costs."

"The administration supports reasonable reforms to ensure that injured plaintiffs can recover against negligent defendants but that no person is able to exploit the litigation system," the report explained.

It made no recommendation concerning group life, which is not included in the present program.

"This was a report about how the law worked," said Jack Dolan, an American Council of Life Insurers staff official. "Group life was not part of the law." He said ACLI will "work diligently to communicate to Congress and the administration the critical importance of adding group life to the program."

Mr. Dolan said the ACLI will argue to Congress and the administration that "lives, not just bricks and mortar, should be of central importance when Congress crafts an extension to this program."