WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush's fellow Republicans in Congress on Tuesday upheld his veto of a bill to ban the CIA from subjecting enemy detainees to interrogation methods denounced by critics as torture.

A largely party-line vote of 225-188 in the Democratic-led House of Representatives fell short of the needed two-thirds majority to override the president.

Bush maintains that the United States does not torture, but has refused to discuss interrogation techniques, saying that doing so could tip off terrorists.

The CIA has acknowledged using a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding on three terrorism suspects, including accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but says it stopped using that method in 2003.

Waterboarding has been condemned by many U.S. lawmakers, human rights groups and foreign countries as a form of torture.

In voting to sustain Bush's veto, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican, attacked Democrats for failing to approve a stalled Senate-passed bill that would expand the government's ability to track foreign targets.

"Rather than holding a vote to give terrorists our (interrogation) playbook, Congress should be voting to strengthen the intelligence community's ability to spy on them," Hoekstra said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said Bush's veto had degraded the country's moral standing, undermined its international credibility and could expose U.S. military and intelligence personnel to the treatment.