LOTT: SENATE NEARS PLAN FOR LENGTHY TRIAL.

Byline: Alison Mitchell The New York Times

Sen. Trent Lott, the majority leader, said Wednesday night that the Senate was getting ``closer and closer'' to a plan for an impeachment trial of President Clinton that could last as long as six weeks and end with an actual vote on the two articles of impeachment.

His announcement on the Senate floor, just hours after the 106th Congress convened, appeared to put an end to any hopes by Democrats and the White House for a bipartisan compromise plan that would have dispensed with a trial in little more than a week.

Hours earlier, Lott had conceded to senators that the emerging plan for the first impeachment trial of a president in 130 years would be one ``that neither the House nor the White House will just necessarily think is wonderful but will give all parties a fair chance to make the case and get to a conclusion that's an equitable one.''

But with Chief Justice William Rehnquist set to swear in senators for the trial today, the two parties remained split over whether to allow witnesses to testify. House Republicans want to call such key witnesses as Monica Lewinsky and perhaps Vernon Jordan, but Democrats have adamantly opposed calling witnesses.

Lott did not say how the volatile issue of witnesses would be handled, calling that question ``one of the critical points.'' Other lawmakers said the Senate might control the calling of witnesses by taking a vote on whether to allow each one.

``All sides of this Rubik's cube have been talked about,'' Lott said Wednesday evening. ``We hope to have this all resolved tomorrow.''

Still, it was not clear Wednesday that Democrats would agree with whatever plan emerged, and Lott was careful not to suggest he had found the magic formula.

``I don't think it's safe to assume anything right now,'' he told reporters, ``so don't be trying to read my body English or anything else. Nothing is written in stone.''

White House aides declined to respond to Lott's brief announcement of a possibly lengthier trial, saying they still did not know what procedures the Senate would adopt.

``I'm not going to try to decipher the meaning of that,'' said Joseph Lockhart, the White House spokesman. ``We will await an announcement of what their process is before commenting further.''

Across the Capitol in the House, lawmakers elected a new, little-known speaker, Rep. Dennis Hastert, who appealed for the House to put aside the deep divisions that had engulfed it late last year in the final days of its impeachment proceedings.

Hastert was turned to by shocked Republicans after Newt Gingrich stepped down under fire and their next choice, Bob Livingston, abruptly resigned over revelations that he had had extramarital affairs. Livingston had toppled Gingrich just one month earlier, capitalizing on anger that Republicans had lost five House seats in a midterm election seen as a mandate against impeachment. The election left them opening the new session Wednesday with a 10-seat majority, one of the smallest House majorities this century.

``Solutions to problems cannot be found in a pool of bitterness,'' Hastert said, delivering his first speech as speaker from the well of the House chamber instead of the imposing speaker's platform.

``In the turbulent days behind us, debate on the merits often gave way to personal attacks,'' he said. ``Some here have felt slighted, insulted or ignored. That is wrong, and that will change.''

Rep. Richard Gephardt, the House minority leader, called on the new Congress to ``put to rest the poisonous politics which have infected this place.''

Yet the impeachment of the president dominated a day usually devoted to celebration and hopeful talk of legislative goals and new party agendas. At times the confluence of events almost seemed bizarre. At one point in the morning, Lott left a Republican conference that was heatedly debating the trial of Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice to receive a quick greeting from Vice President Al Gore.

Looking tanned, Gore heartily called out New Year's greetings to reporters waiting word of how impeachment would proceed. As the presiding officer in the Senate, Gore then swore in the 34 senators elected or re-elected in 1998.

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PHOTO Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott answers reporters' questions Wednesday while on his way to the Senate floor.

Greg Gibson/Associated Press