Democrat Al Gore finally threw in the towel last night and accepted defeat in the most dramatic and traumatic US presidential contest in history.

Texas Governor George W Bush will become 43rd US president and leader of a nation sharply divided along political lines on January 20.

The vice-president's decision - taken after the US Supreme Court delivered a final body blow - was due to be announced to the nation at 2am today, UK time.

Republican Bush was planning his own statement, at 3am, after his vanquished rival had finished speaking.

His aides said he would attempt to heal the divisions caused by the campaign and its brutal, five-week postscript.

Two senior Gore advisors confirmed the vice president was to officially drop out in the nationally televised address.

"The race is over," said one official after speaking with the vice president. "We're done."

A Gore source said the speech will make clear that he has conceded to Bush and that the country should unite behind the next president.

Gore will also explain why he fought for five weeks after the election, returning to his theme that every vote should be counted.

He made the decision to quit 12 hours after the Supreme Court, as divided as the nation, ruled 5-4 against the vice president's bid to recount thousands of votes in Florida.

Gore had sought the recount in the hopes he could overturn Bush's 537 vote victory margin in the state, whose 25 electoral college votes will settle the election. Though Gore has told advisors he considers the Supreme Court ruling partisan, the source said the vice-president would not criticise the justices in his speech.

"The vice president has directed the recount committee to suspend activities," campaign chairman William Daley said in a written statement that effectively ended an unbearably close election 36 tumultuous days after the nation voted.

Last night, Democrats were wondering how Gore managed to lose an election he should have won by a mile. "He somehow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory," said one disgruntled Democratic, pointing to a booming economy and outgoing President Clinton, still the most popular US politician.

New man Bush, son of a former president, will depend heavily on running mate Dick Cheney and likely Secretary of State Colin Powell on foreign affairs. Bush has only been out of the US twice in his life.

Gore topped his Republican rival by more than 300,000 votes out of 103 million ballots cast nationwide.

But Florida's electoral votes, to be cast on December 18 and counted on January 6, would give Bush a total of 271 electoral votes to Gore's 267, one more than needed to win.

Bush's inauguration will give Republicans greater control over the government than at any time since Dwight Eisenhower sat in the White House in the 1950s.

The Republicans retained control of the House of Representatives in the November elections. The Senate is split 50-50, but the Republicans will have at least nominal control there, as well, because the vice president has a casting vote.

Will Bush stick

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