The uncertainty over who will be the next President of the United States deepened last night as a court order to begin recounts in Florida pitted Vice-President Al Gore and Governor George Bush in a new battle for vital votes.
The decision, by a deeply-divided Florida Supreme Court, to overturn a lower court's ruling and order immediate manual recounts of disputed ballots, gives Mr Gore a chance to snatch victory from Mr Bush.
But a dissenting judge warned that the prolonged counting was risking "a constitutional crisis."
Mr Bush, who has already been certified the official winner in Florida by a margin of 537 votes out of six million cast, immediately sought an injunction in a federal court to halt any attempt to begin the recounts until the US Supreme Court in Washington has been able to hear his appeal against the Florida court decision.
The Florida court also added 383 votes to Mr Gore's total and whittled Mr Bush's lead down to a razor-thin 154 votes. This is even before the recount of 9,000 disputed ballots called "under votes" in heavily Democratic Miami-Dade County, where the Gore campaign is confident that the Vice-President will pick up hundreds, if not thousands, of new votes.
The Supreme Court ruling also called for manual recounts of "all undervotes in any Florida county where such a recount has not yet occurred." This decision has greatly complicated an already murky situation. No one last night was sure how many of the 67 Florida counties would be involved and how many undervotes would have to be recounted.
In a dissenting judgment in the four-to-three decision of the Florida Supreme Court, Chief Justice Charles Wells warned that "prolonging the judicial process into a counting contest propels this country and this state into an unprecedented and unnecessary constitutional crisis."
Judge Sanders Sauls, who is the lower court judge ordered to supervise the count of Miami votes, asked to be replaced.
Mr James Baker, who is in charge of the Bush legal operation in Florida, expressed deep disappointment at the court ruling. He said: "This is what happens when for the first time in modern history a candidate resorts to lawsuits to try and overturn an election for President."
There was jubilation among Gore campaigners, who earlier in the day had seen two other court decisions over absentee ballots go against them and who were braced for calls for Mr Gore to concede if the appeal had gone against him.
The campaign chairman, Mr William Daley, said that Mr Gore would respect the results of the manual recounts, which he has been seeking since the disputed election four weeks ago.
"We urge everyone to let the counting, supervised by the independent judiciary, proceed uninterrupted to a speedy conclusion," Mr Daley said in a statement read outside Mr Gore's residence in Washington.
It is not clear that all these recounts can be completed before a deadline of next Tuesday, when the list of Florida's 25 representatives to the Electoral College must be submitted. The College votes on December 18th to elect the next President, and whoever wins in Florida will have a majority in the College.
This is the reason that the Florida state legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, yesterday began a special session to appoint the 25 Florida electors.
The Republicans fear that the prolonged recounting could deprive Florida of its electors, giving Mr Gore a majority in the college when it meets on December 18th.