War-Funding Talks Among Congressional Negotiators Collapse

Efforts by House and Senate negotiators to reconcile different versions of a war-funding bill ground to a halt Thursday after House Democrats stripped from it a provision that bans the release of photos that potentially show detainee abuse at the hands of U.S. troops.

"The provision just needs to stay in," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told FOX News.

Senate Democrats headed immediately into closed-door talks with Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. President Obama got personally involved via speaker phone.

Obama "gave us his word he will not allow the photos to be released," Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said.

House and Senate negotiators plan to reconvene Thursday night.

One option, according to a Democratic senator at the war-funding negotiations, is to have the photo provision voted on as a stand-alone bill.

But Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., told FOX News he does not think there is time to pass the stand-alone bill, and many members are unsure of where the votes would go on the House side, where Democrats oppose blocking the release, which was mandated by a federal court under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear an appeal on July 8.

FOX News' Trish Turner and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.