Washington ? Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, who unleashed a national furor with a remark considered racially divisive, resigned his post Friday as GOP senators rushed to anoint Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee his successor.

In a rapid end to a lingering controversy, Frist is expected to be named Senate majority leader on Monday by his Republican colleagues for the Congress that convenes in January.

Lott, 61, had maintained for days that he would survive the controversy that engulfed him, encouraged by several prominent senators who stuck by him. But on Friday morning — less then 24 hours after Frist publicly announced a bid for the leadership post — Lott abruptly abandoned his fight to retain the job.

“In the interest of pursuing the best possible agenda for the future of our country, I will not seek to remain as majority leader of the United States Senate for the 108th Congress,” Lott said in a statement. He added that he would keep the Senate seat from Mississippi he has held for 14 years.

The White House was given no advance notice of the announcement, reflecting the strains that had developed between the Bush administration and Lott since the remark by him that seemed to embrace segregation.

President Bush last week had sharply criticized the remark as “offensive” and “wrong,” seriously undermining any chance Lott had of riding out the controversy.

Responding to Lott’s resignation, Bush said: “I respect the very difficult decision Trent made on behalf of the American people. Trent is a valued friend, and a man I respect.”

Within hours of Lott’s announcement, all significant opposition to Frist’s candidacy melted away.

Eager to ratify their choice as quickly as possible, the GOP lawmakers moved up an emergency meeting they had planned for Jan. 6. The vote to replace Lott now is scheduled Monday by telephone conference call.

In turning to Frist, a wealthy former heart surgeon symbolic of a new generation of Southern politicians, Republicans are hoping to move past questions of their commitment to racial equality that have haunted their party. Frist also is closely allied to the Bush White House.

Frist, 50, praised Lott’s decision. “He has always put concern for his family, country and colleagues first and demonstrated that today,” he said in a statement.

Frist also acknowledged the high stakes for Republicans, who as of January will control both houses of Congress and the presidency. “We all know that we have a unique opportunity to accomplish great things for America during the next few months,” he said.

With his background as a doctor, Frist will provide expertise on an issue expected to be on the front burner in the next Congress: health care. He is well-versed in AIDS policy, Medicare, managed care, prescription drugs and bioterrorism and has worked frequently with Democrats on many of these issues.

Lott’s resignation culminated a startling 15-day political meltdown. While some House leaders in recent years have been felled by scandal or coup, no Senate party leader has ever been forced from office amid such controversy.

Only five weeks ago, Lott had been re-elected GOP leader without opposition. Humiliated in mid-2001 when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont defected from the GOP and handed Senate control to Democrats, Lott was celebrating the party’s return to the majority because of gains in November’s midterm elections.

But then came Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday party on Dec. 5.

In many respects, it was what Lott later described as a light-hearted celebration for the venerable Republican from South Carolina. There was a Marilyn Monroe impersonator and jokes and laughter aplenty.

Lott spoke after former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., his wisecracking predecessor as majority leader. Lott noted that Thurmond carried Mississippi in 1948 when he ran for president as a Dixiecrat. He added: “And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.”

By seeming to endorse the policy of racial segregation that Thurmond fervently advocated at the time — an impression Lott insisted later was inaccurate — Lott drew attention to his party’s perennially weak standing among black voters and his own spotty record on civil rights.

His repeated apologies failed to extinguish the questions. The ongoing furor also threatened to undermine Bush’s legislative goals only weeks after the Republican electoral triumph.