WASHINGTON — Flinching in the face of a veto threat, Democratic congressional leaders neared agreement with the Bush administration Tuesday on legislation to pay for the Iraq war without setting a timeline for troop withdrawal.

Several officials said the emerging compromise bill would cost about $120 billion, including as much as $8 billion for Democratic domestic priorities — originally resisted by the White House — such as disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina victims and farmers hurt by drought.

After a bruising veto struggle over war funding, congressional leaders in both political parties said they hoped the compromise would be cleared for President Bush's signature by Friday.

Despite the concession, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters that the legislation would be the first war-funding bill sent to Bush since the U.S. invasion of Iraq "where he won't get a blank check."

Reid and other Democrats pointed to a provision that would set standards for the Iraqi government in developing a more democratic society. U.S. reconstruction aid would be conditioned on progress toward meeting the goals, but Bush would have authority to order the money to be spent regardless of how the government in Baghdad performed.

DORGAN PROPOSES TO AX TEMP WORKER PROGRAM

WASHINGTON — An effort to scrap a temporary worker program that has drawn criticism from both parties will provide the first test of a broad immigration bill, as the Senate on Tuesday began tackling a long list of proposed changes to the measure.

A proposal by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., would strike the program, which would bring in at least 400,000 foreign workers each year.

Under a bill drafted by a bipartisan group and backed by the White House, most of the workers could stay for as many as three two-year stints, provided they leave the United States for a year between each stay. Many of the visa holders would be unskilled, nonagricultural workers in areas such as construction, landscaping and meatpacking.

The temporary worker plan has come under attack from several fronts. Many labor unions say it would depress wages and create a class of workers with no job rights. Some business groups call the leave-and-return element unworkable.

"It is just a fiction that these are jobs Americans aren't willing to do," Dorgan said. "The main reason that big corporations want a guest worker program is that it will drive down U.S. wages."

THOUSANDS FLEE PALESTINE REFUGEE CAMP

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — People flooded out of a besieged Palestinian refugee camp Tuesday night, waving white flags and telling of bodies lying in the streets and inside wrecked houses after three days of fighting between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants.

Earlier in the day, a relief convoy came under fire when a cease-fire abruptly shattered as U.N. workers tried to deliver food and water to residents. A U.N. official said some who approached the convoy seeking supplies were wounded or killed, but he did not have exact figures.

The nighttime lull that allowed the escape did not appear to be part of an organized truce — and there was no sign the battle was over. The government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said it was determined to uproot Fatah Islam, which took up residence in the camp late last year.

There was no immediate indication of whether the flight of civilians would give the government a freer hand in bombarding militants holed up in the camp. The army has said its troops were trying to target only militant positions.

Twenty-nine soldiers and at least 20 militants had been killed since the battle began Sunday in the heaviest internal fighting in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war. But the number of civilian casualties remained unknown because relief workers were not able to get inside the camp.

<25 KILLED IN IRAQ CAR BOMBING

BAGHDAD — A car bomb exploded Tuesday at an outdoor market in a Shiite area of Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding at least 60 — the deadliest in a string of attacks that stoked sectarian tension in and around the capital.

The blast occurred in Amil, one of a cluster of neighborhoods in southwestern Baghdad where Sunni-Shiite tension is running high three months after the start of the U.S.-led security crackdown.

Following the blast, terrified survivors ran through the streets hauling buckets and pots of water to try to put out fires in shops that were shattered by the bomb. Volunteers tore through the rubble, searching for survivors.

Sami Hussein, 25, was heading to the market with her 5-year-old son when she heard the explosion, "followed by gray and black smoke, which engulfed the market and made me to fall on the ground."

GIULIANI VOWS TO BATTLE DEMS FOR BLUE STATES

ALBANY, N.Y. — Rudy Giuliani was off Tuesday on a second straight day of campaigning across New York with a message aimed at Republican rivals outside his home state: I can battle them for the blues.

The "them" is the Democrats, who have been making much of picking up a red state or two and winning back the White House — perhaps riding there with Giuliani's home-state rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Giuliani pledges to take the battle against the Democrats to the blue states.

"One of Giuliani's arguments is that he can beat Hillary Clinton, and as long as Hillary remains strong with the Democrats, that is a good argument for Rudy," said Lee Miringoff, head of Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion. "Part of his strategy with Republicans in red states is he might be able to challenge Democrats in blue states."

"Rudy puts New York in play, something no other Republican candidate can do," said Giuliani campaign operative Michael McKeon, once a top aide to Gov. George Pataki. "New York will be a battleground state with Rudy at the top of the ticket."

TROOPER SUSPENDED OVER PORN STAR CLAIMS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A porn star claims a state trooper who stopped her on a highway let drug charges slide in exchange for oral sex. And she says she's got proof — the trooper's own video images of the roadside tryst. The allegations have led to a Tennessee Highway Patrol investigation and the trooper's suspension.

The trooper, James Randy Moss, declined to comment Tuesday. Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning confirmed investigators have interviewed the porn star, who is identified on a citation by her real name, Justis Richert.

Richert, 21, who lives in Knoxville, did not immediately respond Tuesday to messages left on her cell phone or e-mail requests for an interview.

But on her blog, written under the screen name "Barbie Cummings," she goes into explicit detail about the encounter. She says she has photos and video footage of the encounter sent to her by the trooper, as well as a speeding ticket, to back up her story.

The blog had been taken down by Tuesday afternoon, with a note saying the Web site was under construction.

LINCOLN HAD SMALLPOX DURING GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

CHICAGO — Abraham Lincoln has been dead for 142 years, but he still manages to make medical headlines, this time from doctors who say he had a bad case of smallpox when he delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Physicians in Baltimore said last week that Lincoln might have survived being shot if today's medical technology had existed in 1865. Last year, University of Minnesota researchers suggested that a genetic nerve disorder rather than the long-speculated Marfan syndrome might have caused his clunky gait.

"If you play doctor, it's difficult to shut down the diagnostic process" when reading about historical figures, said Dr. Armond Goldman, an immunology specialist and professor emeritus at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He and a colleague "diagnosed" serious smallpox in Lincoln after scouring historical documents, biographies and old newspaper clippings.

Their report appears in May's Journal of Medical Biography.

"Lincoln is such a famous figure in American life that people are just automatically drawn to him," Goldman said.

SIMON COWELL SAYS FINAL 'IDOL' A TOUGH CHOICE

LOS ANGELES — The way Simon Cowell sees it, Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis are the most evenly matched "American Idol" finalists yet and either could win Wednesday.

"It's all to play for. I think it's going to be a good competition. ... You've got the better singer versus the better entertainer," Cowell said, with teen queen Sparks the former and beatboxer Lewis the latter.

The tipping point, Cowell said, could be the tune picked by viewers in an online "American Idol" songwriting contest introduced this season.

Cowell, a series judge and record company executive, listened to a demo of the song that was kept under wraps until the finalists were to perform it on Tuesday's show on Fox. After audience votes are counted the newest idol will be announced on Wednesday's finale.

"It's a ballad, so I think Blake will have to do his own interpretation of it," Cowell said, referring to Lewis' penchant for arrangements that include beatboxing. "That's what he does well."

STOCKS POST FLAT FINISH

NEW YORK — Wall Street ended an erratic session little changed Tuesday as investors upbeat about the latest round of takeover activity remained hesitant to take the market higher ahead of new economic data.

While stocks moved sideways, Treasury yields rose to a three-month high.

Investors have viewed acquisitions as a sign corporate executives are comfortable with the economy. However, stocks failed to gain much momentum as several deals were announced Tuesday, including billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's plans to buy the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas from MGM Mirage Inc.

"There's no real drivers out there, and what we're waiting for is some more economic data," said Todd Salamone, director of trading at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati. "We're right around the closing highs of 2000, so there is some hesitancy at those levels for the time being. It is a short term bump in the midst of an ongoing uptrend."