Go-ahead for Palm Beach recount

The court's decision could help the Gore campaign

Officials in Florida's Palm Beach County have begun a crucial manual recount of 460,000 votes, following a court ruling likely to boost the chances of the Democratic presidential candidate, Al Gore.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled that Palm Beach and two other counties could proceed with a hand recount of ballots in one of three court cases that could decide the result of the US presidential election.

Katherine Harris: Facing down Democrat anger

The official result in Florida is due to be announced on Saturday, after the remaining overseas votes have been counted. The outcome will decide who takes the White House, but further legal battles are expected.

But Florida's Secretary Of State, Katherine Harris, has said she will ignore new manual recounts in a final vote tally for the state. Another Florida court is due to rule on Friday on a Democratic motion seeking to overturn her decision.

In a third case, a Federal appeals court is considering a move by lawyers for George W Bush, the Republican candidate, to end all recounts in Florida.

According to the latest results, Mr Bush has a lead of just 300 votes over Democrat rival Al Gore.

Unreasonable

Mr Gore's campaign manager, William Daley, welcomed the Florida Supreme Court ruling.

He told a news conference that it was "a victory for everyone who wants to see the votes counted fully and fairly here in Florida".

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However, the Republican campaign downplayed the significance of the decision.

A Bush adviser, former US secretary of state James Baker, said: "We will have some counting, that's true," but added: "I don't think you could characterize that as a setback."

Since the warnings issued yesterday by Ms Harris, a Republic supporter, lawyers for Mr Gore have been pressing for an earlier court ruling directing the Florida secretary of state not to act "in an arbitrary or unreasonable manner" to be enforced.

Mr Gore's running mate Joe Lieberman indicated that if Ms Harris went ahead with a declaration of the final results on schedule on Saturday, without considering late recounts, the matter would end in further court appearances.

"The only recourse that the Gore-Lieberman campaign has to achieve a just result to this election, is to continue litigation, which is unfortunate and unnecessary," Joseph Lieberman said on ABC television on Thursday morning.

Angry claims

Ms Harris, who was the Bush campaign's co-chairman in Florida, has faced angry claims from Democrats that she is using her position to boost Mr Bush's chances.

Mr Bush's legal team continues in the opposite direction, now seeking in the Florida Appeals Court to end the recounts.

One demonstrator has a simple solution...

Republicans insist that counting votes by hand is less reliable than machine counting, the process which Democrats insist has lost Mr Gore crucial votes in Florida.

Whichever man is declared the winner will gain the state's 25 electoral college votes, guaranteeing him the White House.

Analysts predict the current legal wrangles in Florida will end up in the state's Supreme Court but then could go further still until reaching the Federal Supreme Court.

Count goes on ...

While the Florida recounts are making the headlines, the official count in several other states where the provisional results were close is still proceeding.

In Oregon, Wisconsin and New Mexico, Al Gore is currently ahead, but the Bush campaign is threatening to request recounts.

He would, however, need to overturn the results so far in all three states to win the White House if Florida ends up going to Al Gore.