Florida's key players

With Florida at the centre of a colossal and complicated battle for the presidency, some of America's most powerful and colourful figures have descended on the Sunshine State.

Click on the names below for a profile of each of the key players:

Judge Sanders Sauls |David Boies |James Baker |Warren Christopher | William Daley |Katherine Harris|Alan Dershowitz | The Reverend Jesse Jackson | Theresa LePore | Carol Roberts

Judge Sanders Sauls

Judge Sanders Sauls: 'This is no different from any other litigation'

Judge Sanders Sauls is the latest Florida judge drawn in to the seemingly endless legal tussling in the aftermath of the state's disputed election result.

Assigned to the case entirely through the random selection of a courthouse computer, Sanders Sauls is a widely respected Judge who likes to portray a laid-back image of himself.

However, Judge Sauls is no slouch in the courtroom. ''He will not be bullied by anyone,'' said Peter Dunbar, a prominent Tallahassee lawyer speaking to the New York Times.

Judge Sauls is known as a conservative Democrat, but has a reputation for keeping his politics to himself. He also has a reputation for an unswerving adherence to the precise letter of the law.

And although he has lived his entire life in northern Florida, he is extremely experienced and has held a wide range of legal positions including prosecutor, litigator and magistrate.

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David Boies, Al Gore's chief lawyer

David Boies has a fearsome legal reputation

David Boies is commonly described as a legal leviathan, and his track record of winning high profile, high stakes cases is second to none.

Most recently these include defending internet music site Napster against the might of America' record giants, and successfully arguing that Microsoft had indeed monopolised the software industry.

At $700 (£491) per hour, his services do not come cheap, but in the words of William Kovocic of the Washington University Law School, he is "the person you hire when you are really, really serious about doing battle in the courtroom."

The 58-year-old has earned himself a reputation as something of an eccentric; he appears in court wearing training shoes, and wears his watch over his shirt cuff for ease of timekeeping.

But opponents shouldn't be fooled by the oddball image; he has lost only one of his previous 45 cases.

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James A Baker III, head of the Bush legal team

Baker: the Velvet Hammer

A longtime friend of the Bush family, Mr Baker led George Bush's first campaign for the presidency, in 1980.

When Mr Bush became Ronald Reagan's vice-president, Mr Baker became White House Chief of Staff, then went on to head the Treasury Department and the State Department.

An American news magazine nicknamed him the "Velvet Hammer" for his gentle yet relentless way of getting things done.

He was President Bush's point man in the Middle East during the 1990 Iraq invasion of Kuwait and its aftermath.

After Mr Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992, Mr Baker, 70, settled in at the Washington law firm of Baker Bott.

Of the Florida recount, he said: "If we have to respond to recount after recount after recount of the same ballots, it would not be in the best interest of our wonderful country. And what's happening now is not in the best interest of our country."

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Warren Christopher, head of the Gore legal team

Christopher has never wanted the limelight

As President Clinton's Secretary of State from 1993 to 1997, Warren Christopher, 75, earned the respect of even his detractors for his gentlemanly ways.

He came to national attention when he negotiated the release of the American hostages in Iran in 1980, but has always been reluctant to put himself in the public eye.

After the Democrats lost the White House in 1980, he returned to the Los Angeles law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, where he is now senior partner.

In 1992, he led Bill Clinton's search for a vice-presidential candidate, and hence was instrumental in making Al Gore the Democratic nominee this year.

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Katherine Harris, Florida Secretary of State

Katherine Harris is accused by Democrats of being a Bush crony

Katherine Harris was elected Secretary of State for Florida two years ago promising to restore integrity to the state's elections.

Now she finds herself presiding over the state's undignified post-election scramble for votes, where integrity is being questioned as never before - and with the whole world watching.

Her decision to disregard hand recounted ballots in several Florida counties enraged Democrats, who accuse her of using her position of power to swing the result in favour of George W Bush.

She was Mr Bush's campaign co-chairman in the state, and the Gore campaign has denounced her as little more than a Bush crony.

A former real estate agent, Ms Harris attracted controversy even before being thrust into the international spotlight after she was implicated in an illegal political funding scandal.

But her ability to face-off challenges and defend her record suggest she will be more than able to ride out this particular controversy.

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William Daley, Gore campaign chairman

Daley took over the ailing Gore campaign in June

William Daley resigned his position as secretary of commerce to take over Al Gore's floundering presidential campaign in June.

An attorney by training, he first became involved in national politics in 1993 as a special presidential advisor on Nafta, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Of the vote in Florida, he said: "I hope all Americans will agree that the will of the people, not a computer glitch should select our next president.

"Waiting is unpleasant for all of us, but suggesting that the outcome of a vote is known before all the ballots are properly counted is inappropriate."

Political insiders may well be chuckling at the notion of a man named Daley demanding transparent elections: William Daley's father, Chicago's late Mayor Richard J Daley, once ran one of the country's most tightly controlled political machines and is credited with delivering the state of Illinois, and the 1960 presidential election, to John F Kennedy.

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Alan Dershowitz, attorney for eight Palm Beach voters who say they punched the wrong hole on their ballot

Dershowitz plays to win

A Harvard Law School professor at the age of 28 - the youngest in the school's history - Alan Dershowitz was a member of OJ Simpson's "dream team" of defence lawyers.

A frequent writer on individual liberties and Jewish subjects, Mr Dershowitz has been called "the top lawyer of last resort in the country - a sort of judicial St Jude" by Time magazine.

In addition to OJ Simpson, his clients have included Mike Tyson, Penthouse magazine, the convicted American spy Jonathan Pollard and two US senators.

"Once I decide to take a case, I have only one agenda: I want to win," he wrote in his memior The Best Defence.

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The Reverend Jesse Jackson, activist

Jackson ran for president himself

One of America's foremost civil rights leaders, the Rev Jackson was a lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr and was with him when he was assassinated in 1968.

The Rev Jackson went on to found the civil-rights group Operation Push in Chicago and to run for president as a Democrat in 1984 and 1988.

He lost in the primaries on both occassions, but stunned many commentators with the depth and breadth of his national support.

His biographer, Marshall Frady, described him as a "fretful, extravangantly troublesome, exhorting, chiding, restless, gospelteering outsider."

At the same time, Mr Frady said: "One can come across any number of chaps holding forth on street corners who imagine themselves prophets to their time, but what makes Jackson fascinating is that he has actually held the wherewithal for it."

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Theresa LePore, Palm Beach Election supervisor

Theresa LePore: Blamed for Florida's vote counting headaches

Theresa LePore had enjoyed a reputation for efficiency and exactitude during her four-year tenure as Palm Beach Elections supervisor until she decided to 'improve' the county's electoral ballot papers.

Her controversial 'butterfly' voting form was likened by baffled voters to a maze, and has been cited as the reason why 19,000 people mistakenly backed two candidates.

In the furore following the disputed result, there have been repeated calls for Ms LePore to be sacked. She has already been cited in several lawsuits filed by disgruntled voters.

Ms LePore, who had reportedly dreamed of becoming an electoral supervisor since childhood, has defended her design and claims it is easier for elderly voters to use.

But few others agree, and most suspect the truth is that she was simply being too diligent.

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Carol Roberts, Palm Beach County commissioner

Carol Roberts insisted on a manual recount

Carol Roberts' insistence on a manual recount of disputed votes in Palm Beach County triggered a week of frantic legal challenges and counter-challenges by both Bush and Gore camps.

A tough, no nonsense Democrat, Mrs Roberts previously worked in PR, was formerly a West Palm Beach commissioner, and has also served as city mayor.

Her recount motion, carried by 2-1 by Palm Beach's three-member Canvassing Board, prompted fierce criticism from Republicans, who accuse her of tampering with ballots.

Mrs Roberts says she has also received death threats. But, according to Monte Friedkin, chairman of the Palm Beach Democratic Party she is unlikely to be overly concerned.

"She's a tough one. She doesn't scare easily and has a lot of experience," he said speaking to the Washington Post.

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