WASHINGTON, Nov 29 — Vice- President Al Gore’s efforts to overturn his Republican rival George Bush’s victory in Florida suffered a setback as a state court on Tuesday night put on hold his legal challenge at least till the US Supreme Court’s historic hearing on a related issue on Friday.

Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, denied the Democratic nominee’s emergency request to start immediately counting disputed ballots in two counties that may rob the Texas Governor of 25 electoral votes awarded by the authorities in the state of which his younger brother Jeb Bush is the Governor.

Florida’s electoral votes proved decisive in the declaration of Mr Bush as the winner of the presidency on Sunday and he is now pushing ahead with the process of transition of power, ignoring the legal challenge to the poll outcome.

The judge, however, fixed for Saturday a formal hearing on Mr Gore’s request for a manual count of the ballots, one day after the arguments on Florida’s disputed election in the US Supreme Court here. “I am not going to interfere with the US Supreme Court,” he said.

He also agreed to Mr Gore’s plea for bringing to Tallahassee disputed ballots, estimated at between 13,000 and 14,000, from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties in South Florida.

Judge Sauls said if he decided to grant any recount he wanted it finished by December 6 to allow enough time for either side to appeal or contest it. That meant it was not absolutely necessary to start the recount before Saturday, December 2. The deadline by which Florida must choose its representatives in the Electoral College is December 12.

There will be a preliminary hearing on Thursday to examine the underlying legal questions involved in Mr Gore’s application.

Mr Gore’s campaign has urged the court to overturn Mr Bush’s officially certified 537-vote victory in Florida and instead declare the Vice-President as the winner. The US Supreme Court, which comes in the picture because of Mr Bush’s petition questioning manual vote recount, hears both sides on Friday. The hand-counting cut into almost half of Mr Bush’s lead of 930 votes.

Last night, both sides filed their written briefs with the Supreme Court in which Mr Bush asked for overturning the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling last week that directed Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to accept hand-counted ballots after November 14, the deadline she said was set by state law.

In sharp contrast, the Gore legal team disputed the Supreme Court jurisdiction, citing “principles of federalism” against interference. Moreover, election is a state subject.

Meanwhile, Mr Bush has brought in a new legal team to meet Mr Gore’s challenge in Florida. His representatives, former Secretary of State James Baker, who introduced them, said the USA never had a presidential election decided by a contest in the courts.

Both sides also filed papers on Tuesday with the Florida Supreme Court in a lawsuit seeking a new presidential vote in Palm Beach county because of an allegedly confusing “butterfly” ballot that Democrats said cost Mr Gore thousands of votes.

Apparently worried over the possibility of an adverse outcome in the ongoing legal battle, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature is considering calling a special session to name Florida’s 25 electors for Mr Bush.

But if the legislature proceeds to choose its own slate of electors and if the courts ultimately rule that Mr Gore won the state Congress would be faced with having to choose between two slates of electors, says The New York Times.