Bush prepares for takeover

WASHINGTON, DEC. 15. The transition team of the United States President-elect, Mr. George W. Bush, began in earnest its race against the clock to complete a complex handover of power.

As a first order of business, Mr. Bush will visit Washington on Monday and Tuesday to meet the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, the Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore, and congressional leaders, the Vice-President-elect, Mr. Dick Cheney, said on Thursday.

``I expect to see the first announcements soon,'' Mr. Cheney said of Mr. Bush's Cabinet post nominations at a press conference on Thursday in Mclean, Virginia, just outside Washington.

``The transition is well underway,'' he said, adding the team has ``made significant progress''. Mr. Bush must appoint around 6,000 staffers and wade through 21,000 or so job applications as soon as possible ahead of his January 20 swearing-in, hiring people who must first pass the FBI's intensive background checks - a process that could take weeks.

``We're going to move just as rapidly as we can,'' Mr. Cheney said.

Normally, the President-elect has a grace period of nine weeks after the election to prepare for his time in office. Because of the legal wranglings and ballot recounts that enshrouded an election verdict until Wednesday, Mr. Bush was not afforded this luxury.

Appeal dismissed

A Tallahassee report said the Florida Supreme Court formally dismissed the appeal calling for new recounts in the presidential vote. This was only a formality after a U.S. Supreme Court reversal and Mr. Gore's withdrawal.

The justices said on Thursday it had no recourse after the nation's top court ruled that an order last week by the Florida High Court for recounts to proceed violated constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked manual vote recounts in Florida, on which the Gore campaign pinned its hopes for winning the White House.

Protests planned

In Washington, a motley coalition of mainly Left-wing groups have said they plan demonstrations at the inauguration of Mr. Bush, protesting this week's intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court. They will air charges that many black voters, who overwhelmingly backed Mr. Gore, were stopped from voting. Many oppose the Texas Governor's commitment to the death penalty. Texas leads the country in the number of executions.

Organisers said many of the anti-globalisation activists who came here last April to try to disrupt meetings of the World Bank and the IMF were expected to take part. Police said they were gearing for a major operation to prevent disruption of the ceremony, which includes the swearing- in of the incoming President on the steps of the capitol and a parade through the streets to the White House.

The civil rights leader, Mr. Jesse Jackson, has threatened mass protests across the country against Mr. Bush and said on Wednesday these would coincide with Martin Luther King day on January 15 or on inauguration day.

Mr. Jackson and other civil rights leaders are protesting what they say was the disenfranchisement of many black voters, particularly in Florida. They say many were turned away from polling stations because of registration problems.

- Reuters

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