Presidents have frequently summoned Congress into "extra" or "special" sessions, but they have never exercised the power to adjourn Congress.

Mr. Clinton summoned Congress and the country to support a package of tax breaks intended to help middle-class families care for young children, send them to college or technical school, and plan for retirement and life's biggest and most important expenses, like buying a first home.

W.G. had promptly summoned Congress into a special session two weeks before December 4, when the regular winter session began.

But when parliament met later in the day to summon Congress formally, Mr Khasbulatov for the second time in three days stepped back from delivering the final stroke.

In parliament a senior deputy urged his colleagues to give Mr Yeltsin a chance to reconsider before summoning Congress.

He has also threatened to summon Congress immediately after the voting, presumably to seek new ways of thwarting the President.

McKinley first took his congressional seat in October 1877, when President Hayes summoned Congress into special session.

For example, several senators have joined Senator Bob Kerrey, Democrat of Nebraska, in calling on the President to summon Congress to a 10-day special session to find more spending cuts.

President Franklin Roosevelt summoned Congress, which voted to declare war that same day.

By law, his departure left the president of the Senate, Ramón Puerta, as acting president for the second time in 10 days, with the obligation to summon Congress to a special session by Wednesday to select yet another new president.