LOTT RE-ELECTED SENATE MAJORITY LEADER

Senate Republicans re-elected Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi on Tuesday to be their majority leader in the next Congress, giving the man who replaced Bob Dole his first real chance to set the chamber's agenda.

The senators also selected their other leaders, all without opposition and by acclamation, said Lott's press secretary, Susan Irby.After nearly two hours behind closed doors, GOP leaders repeated their pledge of bipartisan cooperation.

"We look forward to working with the president to get legislative achievement signed into law," Lott said. He also said he would take the unusual step of announcing the Senate's schedule for the upcoming year, a move intended to promote efficiency and eliminate snags in the normally slow-moving Senate.

A 55-year-old conservative with a penchant for cutting compromises, Lott will guide a Senate whose membership leans further right than it has in years. But complicating Lott's job, this is also a time when politicians from both parties say voters want partisan cooperation, not confrontation.

Lott replaced Dole as GOP leader last June, when the Kansan resigned to concentrate on his failed presidential bid. But Lott inherited a chamber whose members were eager to quickly complete their work so they could plunge into the campaign season.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Tom Daschle was re-elected minority leader without opposition. The soft-spoken South Dakotan, who will turn 49 next Monday, will begin his third year in the job. He won his post by a single vote two years ago over Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and has steered a course that has mixed cooperation with partisan attacks.

Each party was choosing its leaders in separate, closed-door meetings.

The meetings come exactly four weeks after an Election Day that saw voters expand the GOP's 53-47 Senate majority to 55-45. Members of both parties have said that voters - who re-elected Clinton and GOP congressional majorities - want compromise, but Republicans are already ruling out helping the president ease parts of this year's welfare overhaul.

"A significant reforming or undermining the welfare bill, no," Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Nickles retained his position Tuesday, while Connie Mack, R-Fla., was chosen for the No. 3 job of conference chairman. Mack replaces Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who promised not to seek the job again after Lott easily defeated him for the top job by a 44-8 vote last June.