Despite the ballot dispute in Ohio, Bush seemed to have strengthened his hand for an eventual second term, polling stronger than ever and helping Republicans tighten their hold on Congress.

Barring a stunning reversal in Ohio, Bush seemed in good shape to claim a fresh mandate for his highly controversial policies.

But while commentators fretted anew over flaws in the archaic US system that relies on electors awarded state by state, Bush could still take heart in his showing after a hotly contested campaign.

The Republican rolled up a surprising 3.6 million vote lead over the Massachusetts senator in the nationwide popular vote, carving out a 51-48 percent edge in a race that pre-election polls had called a dead heat.

For the president, the result was a sweet reversal from four years ago when he lost the popular tally to Al Gore by more than half a million votes, fueling taunts that he lacked a legitimate mandate to rule.

Bush could also be cheered by a 370,000-vote victory in the southeastern state Florida, which Democrats claim he stole in 2000 with a 537-vote win that survived five weeks of recounts and litigation.

Bush’s chief of staff Andrew Card said Bush's total marked the first time since 1988 that the winner in a presidential election received a majority of the popular vote.

“This all adds up to a convincing Electoral College victory, as well as a strong endorsement of President Bush by his fellow Americans in the popular vote,” Card told cheering supporters here in a pre-dawn appearance.

The Democrats clearly had an uphill task to erase Bush's 145,000-vote edge in Ohio through an unspecified number of absentee ballots and provisional ballots that were cast but held aside to determine the voter's eligibility.

The Republicans stepped up pressure on Kerry to concede, with Bush campaign communications director Nicolle Devenish calling his refusal to throw in the towel on Ohio “delusional.”

And it was not clear whether the Democrats would go down to the mat. Kerry's running-mate John Edwards pledged to make sure all votes were counted but spoke of carrying on the battle for “one more night.”

More resounding were the Republican successes in Congress where they looked poised to consolidate and even improve their position despite earlier Democratic hopes of taking at least the Senate.

Republicans looked set to ride Bush's coattails to a wider margin in the Senate, boosting their 51 seat edge in the outgoing 100-member body to as many as 55 seats after turning back several Democratic challenges in key states.

Among the scalps claimed was Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, the top Democrat in Congress, who lost a squeaker in South Dakota to John Thune, a former member of the House of Representatives.

Republican leaders had made a priority of beating Daschle, who last won re-election in 1998 with 62 percent of the vote.

In the House of Representatives, Republicans were also set to increase their 18-seat advantage over Democrats, exceeding by a comfortable margin the 218 seat-threshold needed to claim a majority in the 435 seat chamber.

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