WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday affirmed his support for controversial anti-terrorism legislation due for congressional renewal this year but indicated he is willing to consider changing some of its provisions in order to ensure their continuation.

Making his first policy speech since his swearing-in three weeks ago, Gonzales told a conference sponsored by Stanford University's Hoover Institution that the USA Patriot Act, passed in 2001, "has helped prevent additional terrorist attacks" and that he shares Congress's goal of "giving law enforcement the tools they need to keep America safe while honoring our values."

More than a dozen surveillance-related provisions of the law are scheduled to expire this year unless they are renewed, a prospect that provoked a political campaign by Gonzales's predecessor, John Ashcroft, for reauthorization of each provision. Although Gonzales did not delve into specifics, he opened the door to potential modifications by saying, "I am willing to support improvements to our laws that make America safer."

Spokesman Kevin Madden amplified slightly after the speech, saying, "If there are movements to make these provisions that are designed to sunset better, then he would support that; but (Gonzales believes) allowing them to lapse would make America less safe." Madden said that any changes would have to "add to law enforcement's ability to crack down on terror."

The Patriot Act provided new authority to the Justice Department and the FBI to monitor alleged terrorists or their associates, and provided legal sanction for increased information-sharing between criminal investigators and intelligence agencies. Some of its provisions have been assailed by civil liberties groups, including some conservatives; lawsuits have been filed to challenge in particular a provision allowing the collection of information from libraries and businesses without the government's having to show probable cause.

The thrust of Gonzales's remarks - in which he quoted at length from a telephone conversation between a doomed futures trader on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center and the man's wife shortly before the tower collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001 - made clear that countering terrorism will be his top priority, as it was for Ashcroft. Gonzales's first trip was to a South Carolina meeting of prosecutors from around the country who were discussing their terrorism cases.

But Gonzales also touched on several other topics in his speech. He pledged to strengthen the prosecution of obscenity, a cause in which the Justice Department recently declared its intention to appeal a federal judge's ruling against certain anti-obscenity laws. He also pledged to try to curtail trafficking in human beings by getting states to approve model legislation developed by the Justice Department.

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By R. JEFFREY SMITH

The Washington Post