TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's Republican-run Senate scrapped a vote Wednesday on naming presidential electors pledged to George W. Bush, recessing its special session within minutes in response to Al Gore's plan to concede the election.

Senate President John McKay announced from the podium that he was postponing action "out of respect to the vice president." The election contest that consumed the nation for the past five weeks "may have reached the point of finality," he declared.

But McKay said he would not yet adjourn the special session because "I don't think any of us can say with complete assurance that no action is necessary."

"It's a Rubik's Cube," he said after the session, which lasted about 10 minutes. "Turn it over ... you got five other things to confuse you."

Yet, Senate Majority Leader Jim King left little doubt that the lawmakers' intervention in the presidential dispute was at an end.

He said that an "unequivocal" withdrawal statement from Gore would mean "I think we come in here and say goodbye to everybody." Gore planned to address the nation at 9 p.m. EST.

Not surprisingly, Democrats found no reason for the Senate to act. "I would urge us to just get out of town," said Sen. Ron Silver.

The Republican-controlled House voted 79-41 on Tuesday to approve the 25 representatives to the Electoral College, which elects the president and vice president. The Senate, with a 25-15 Republican majority, was expected to do the same.

McKay, however, said he wanted to proceed more deliberately than House Speaker Tom Feeney in case the courts settled the matter. The U.S. Supreme Court appeared to do just that Tuesday night by rejecting a ballot recount that had been ordered by the Florida Supreme Court.

The decision from the nation's highest court allowed McKay to tell senators: "Our measured approach was the right course to take."

"Out of respect for the vice president we will wait to hear his comments this evening before taking further action," he told senators during the session.

McKay said there could be another session Thursday at the earliest.

Sen. Tom Lee, the Senate Rules Committee chairman, said "We're not absolutely sure it's over yet" but agreed it would take an unexpected development to revive the chance of a vote.

"I think the Democrats, I spoke to them this morning, I think they're of the same mind that unless this is absolutely necessitated by something that they don't see right now, they'd prefer not to be here," he said.

Sen. Democratic Leader Tom Rossin, a major critic of the Legislature's plan to intervene in the disputed election, said the last five weeks shows the strength of system created by the nation's Founding Fathers.

"It was pretty messy but it worked," he said. "We're going to have to go through a healing process and that may start here with the Florida Senate."

Another Democrat, Sen. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, said: "I feel this overwhelming sense of sadness. ... It's not because Vice President Gore's not going to be president, I just don't think people are going to be able to feel comfortable with government."

Outside the Capitol, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Joseph Lowery led some 500 marchers protesting the special session.

"A legislative body that would vote on a slate of electors that would override the voice of the people are legislative tyrants," said Lowery, head of the Black Leadership Forum, a coalition of civil rights and union organizations.