As governor George W. Bush clung on to a precarious lead in the vital Florida recount, his representative yesterday warned the Gore campaign against prolonging the presidential election by court challenges.
Former Republican secretary of state Mr James Baker, who heads the Bush observer team at the recount in Tallahassee, Florida, warned if the Gore campaign continued not to accept the results of the recount, then Mr Bush might ask for recounts in states which he narrowly lost, such as Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico.
Mr Bush said yesterday that while waiting to see if the Florida voting confirmed him as president, he was planning "in a responsible way" for a future Bush administration. When asked if it was "time for Al Gore to give up", he said each team had to do what was "in the best interests of the country". The latest unofficial tally by Associated Press of the recount shows Mr Bush ahead by 327 votes. But Florida will not declare an official result until next Friday when all the counties have reported and the overseas ballots are counted.
Both sides claim the overseas ballots could help their candidate. Republicans says military personnel usually vote Republican, as in 1996. But Democrats say many are African-American who would vote for Mr Gore. Florida Jews living in Israel would also be likely to vote for Mr Gore, whose running mate, Senator Joseph Lieberman, is Jewish, Democrats point out.
Whoever wins the popular vote in Florida also wins the state's 25 electoral votes and thus a majority in the electoral college and the presidency.
The Gore campaign is supporting legal action by Democrats in Palm Beach County for a hand recount. They are claiming the ballot paper there was illegal and badly designed so they mistakenly voted twice or for the Reform Party candidate, Mr Pat Buchanan.
Mr Baker stepped back from calling on Mr Gore to concede the election immediately but implied he should follow the examples of previous Republican presidential candidates, Mr Richard Nixon and Mr Gerald Ford. They were defeated by very narrow margins but "put the country's interest first" and refused to challenge the results. Mr William Daley, the campaign manager for Mr Gore, quickly called a Democratic party press conference to say "waiting is unpleasant for all of us" but it was "inappropriate" to suggest that the outcome of a vote is known before all the ballots are properly counted.
Mr Baker said the Bush campaign "will vigorously oppose the Gore campaign's efforts to keep recounting over and over again until it happens to like the result".
The war of words began early yesterday morning when Ms Karen Hughes, chief spokesperson for Mr Bush, said: "We have now had a recount that showed Governor Bush won the state of Florida and I would hope all parties involved would think about the good of the country."
But Mr Daley retorted that "contrary to claims being made this morning by the Bush campaign, this election is not over".