WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

President Bush's national security and legal advisers are expected to discuss the move at the White House tomorrow and, for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing, senior administration officials said today.

The advisers will consider a new proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where they could face trial, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.

Officials familiar with the agenda of tomorrow's meeting said Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace were expected to attend.

It was not immediately clear if the meeting would result in a final recommendation to Bush.

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BUSH'S SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM SPARKED INTERNAL DEBATE

WASHINGTON — The administration was sharply divided over the legality of President Bush's most controversial eavesdropping policies, a congressman quoted former Attorney General John Ashcroft as telling a House panel today.

"It is very apparent to us that there was robust and enormous debate within the administration about the legal basis for the president's surveillance program," Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Ashcroft.

The point is critical to two matters being considered in the Democratic-controlled Congress: One is the House and Senate Intelligence committees' ongoing review of 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which includes an extensive examination of the president's warrantless eavesdropping program.

The other is the House and Senate Judiciary Committees' parallel examinations of current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' service to the administration. Under that probe, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey revealed that Gonzales, then White House counsel, tried to pressure him and a critically ill Ashcroft to certify the legality of the wiretapping program.

Comey and Ashcroft, who was in intensive care during Gonzales' 2004 hospital visit, refused to comply.

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ABBAS MULLING STRENGTH-BUILDING EARLY ELECTIONS

RAMALLAH, West Bank — In his bitter wrangling with Hamas over legitimacy, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering calling presidential and legislative elections to strengthen his position, a top aide said today.

However, elections could only be held in the West Bank while Gaza remains under Hamas rule, further deepening the split between the two territories. One Hamas spokesman hinted the Islamic militants might try to disrupt voting in the West Bank.

In Ramallah, Abbas won backing from the PLO for his most recent steps against Hamas — throwing it out of the government, outlawing its militias and forming an emergency Cabinet of moderates in response to the militant group's violent takeover of Gaza.

The PLO Central Council also asked Abbas to prepare new presidential and legislative elections.

An Abbas adviser, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said the Palestinian leader "will work to conduct presidential and legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza." Asked about holding elections in Gaza, Abed Rabbo said: "Gaza is part of the homeland."

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EDWARDS REVIVES 'TWO AMERICAS' AGENDA

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is bemoaning the growing divide between rich and poor as he returns to the signature theme of "Two Americas" from his unsuccessful 2004 White House bid. Looking to break out from under two leading rivals, Edwards planned to focus on the economic gap that he argues has widened since his last run.

"Our tax system has been rewritten by George Bush to favor the wealthy and shift the burden to working families. That is simply wrong," Edwards said, according to text provided by his campaign. "There are still Two Americas."

He planned to deliver the speech at Cooper Union college in New York.

The economic theme was at the core of his first bid, while this time he has focused on opposition to the Iraq war, universal health care and his work to fight poverty. He is putting a new emphasis on economic themes as he tries to expand his campaign beyond Iowa, where he holds the edge in some polls based in part on his ties from the last campaign and organization.

But Edwards trails Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in other states. The campaign recognizes that while momentum out of Iowa could help propel Edwards, he needs to make gains elsewhere to compete. He plans a new focus on New Hampshire in particular in coming weeks.

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BROKEN-OFF ICEBERGS ARE OCEAN 'OASES'

WASHINGTON — Icebergs that break off Antarctica and drift away turn out to be hotspots of life in the cold southern ocean, researchers report. Climate warming has led to an increase in the number of icebergs breaking away from the Antarctic in recent years, and a team of researchers set out to study the impact the giant ice chunks were having on the environment.

Turns out, the melting ice also dumps particles scraped off Antarctica into the ocean, providing a pool of nutrients that feed plankton and tiny shrimplike creatures known as krill.

Indeed, the researchers led by Kenneth L. Smith Jr., of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif., found an increase in life forms surrounding a pair of icebergs they studied.

The abundance extended nearly 2› miles away from the drifting ice, they report in this week's online edition of the journal Science.

"Just as water holes become "hotspots" in the desert, drifting icebergs are like oases in Antarctic's ocean," helping promote life, said Russell R. Hopcroft of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

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CYRUS HOPES DAUGHTER AVOIDS CELEB CRASH-AND-BURN

Billy Ray Cyrus hopes daughter and 'Hannah Montana' star Miley won't follow Lindsay and Paris

NEW YORK — Billy Ray Cyrus is crossing his fingers that his daughter, "Hannah Montana" star Miley, won't go the way of Lindsay and Paris and Britney. He even shows her articles about the Hollywood troublemakers as cautionary tales.

So far, so good.

"The biggest phenomenon in all this is that the kid's been able to keep her head on her shoulders," the 45-year-old country singer tells People magazine in its new issue. "She hasn't flipped out. I'm going to knock on wood."

He adds: "I pray every day she can stay on that path."