The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from George W Bush on the contested hand recount of presidential election votes in Florida. A court official said that a hearing would take place next Friday. Mr Bush filed appeals with the court on Wednesday in response to the Florida Supreme Court's ruling that hand recount tallies should be included in the official election results in the state. The campaign of Al Gore has responded in its own briefs before the Supreme Court that the Florida electoral dispute should be left to the Florida authorities and courts.
The Democrats said earlier that they would continue court action over the disputed US presidential election in spite of the latest ruling against Al Gore. Yesterday the Florida Supreme Court accepted that local election officials in Miami's Dade County would not be able to meet the Sunday deadline for the completion of a manual recount. Democrats want the result included in the overall state tally.
Campaign officials have indicated that Mr Gore will not concede the overall election even if George W Bush is declared the winner in Florida on Sunday evening. At present, Governor Bush leads in Florida by 930 votes but two counties, Palm Beach and Broward, are still undertaking manual recounts. President Clinton has said that he hopes there will be enough time to go through the legal processes before January 20, when his successor is due to be sworn in.
