A former District Judge has emerged as a leading candidate to replace Alberto R. Gonzales to be the attorney general, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The White House would probably announce its nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to take the key position as early as Monday, the Washington Post learned from sources close to the government.

The 66-year-old judge, the former chief in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, was described by Republicans as a conservative on counterterrorism issues, such as electronic surveillance, who has a solid reputation and trust of President George W. Bush and his aids.

Former White House domestic policy adviser Jay P. Lefkowitz was quoted by the report as saying Mukasey "is really a tough-as-nails judge ... has very strong law-and-order values."

The jurist also has rich experience in anti-terrorism through presiding some of the nations' most high-profile trials of terrorist suspects. After spending 19 years on the federal bench in New York, he formed bonds with former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and became a member of justice advisory committee for the his presidential campaign.

Michael was put on table after Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid vowed last week to block another top candidate, former US Solicitor General Theodore Olson, for he being too partisan.

When asked by the "Fox News Sunday" about Mukasey's potential nomination, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden said if he can convince him that as attorney general he would be the nation's lawyer, not the president's, "I could support him."

Gonzales resigned late last month from the Justice Department after he was suspected of lying to Congress on his dismissal of nine federal prosecutors. Congressional Democrats claimed they had evidence to show the White House was actually behind the dismissal but Gonzales denied any wrongdoing.

He was set to officially leave his office on Monday.

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2007)