These include tracts of ancient trees near Tucson, Arizona, the last pristine stretch of the Columbia River in Washington state, and scenic Western canyons.

The House also voted to drop language that would have stalled an environmental management programme for the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River basin, removing another sticking point in a $14.6 billion bill for public lands and cultural programmes that Clinton has threatened to veto.

The White House still had objections to the lands bill that it says shortchanges efforts to buy more park lands and cuts support for arts and humanities programmes.

The House was expected to complete work on the bill later on Thursday, one of the 13 annual spending measures Congress must pass to fund the government next fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

The bill would have blocked funds to manage nine national monuments on federal lands that Clinton has proclaimed. The president's action shielded some 2 million acres (800,000 hectares) from mining, logging and other activities under the 1906 Antiquities Act.

Western Republicans blasted Clinton for putting vast tracts of land in their states off limits to economic uses, saying he was misapplying the Antiquities Act that was intended to protect culturally important places instead of large areas.

"The administration is engaging in the biggest land grab since the invasion of Poland," said Representative Helen Chenoweth-Gage, an Idaho Republican.

They also accused Clinton of using the programme to provide scenic backdrops for politically motivated news conferences, and said the Constitution makes Congress, not the president, responsible for determining uses of public lands.

"All of the flannel shirts and blues jeans cannot obscure the nakedness of a president bereft of the constitutional covering," said Representative Bob Schaffer, a Colorado Republican.

But Democrats, joined by a number of moderate Republicans, said the Antiquities Act was needed to protect for future generations beautiful lands that are home to rare wildlife.