Scandal-hit senator may not quit

Mr Craig said he should not have pleaded guilty without legal advice

US Senator Larry Craig may reconsider his decision to resign over an incident which saw him arrested in a men's toilet in June, aides have said.

Senator Craig, a Republican from Idaho, pleaded guilty last month to disorderly conduct in an airport lavatory.

He has now hired lawyers to try and reverse the guilty plea.

The outcome of the case "will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight, and stay in the Senate," his spokesman told the Associated Press.

Senator Craig, 62, was arrested by an undercover police officer for allegedly soliciting gay sex.

But the politician, who has a record of hostility to gay rights and is a married father-of-three, insists he is not homosexual.

He has been representing Idaho for 27 years, but following the incident was due to resign by the end of September.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore that the only thing he could do was resign," Sidney Smith, his spokesman in Idaho's capital, told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign September 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight - and stay in the Senate," Mr Smith said.

Conservative record

Republican leaders announced last week Senator Craig had agreed to stand down temporarily from three Senate committees.

Party officials also referred the matter to the Senate ethics committee.

Senator Craig has also resigned from the 2008 presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney.

Last week, Senator Craig said police had misconstrued his actions at Minneapolis-St Paul airport.

He said he had pleaded guilty to handle the matter "quickly and expeditiously", but should not have done so without taking legal advice.

Undercover police arrested him while investigating complaints of lewd behaviour in men's toilets at Minneapolis-St Paul airport in June.

According to a police report, Senator Craig entered a cubicle next to the undercover policeman and tapped his foot in a way that the officer recognised as a sign of "a desire to engage in sexual conduct".

Senator Craig then gestured under the cubicle divider, at which point the police officer identified himself and arrested him, the report said.