Washington ? President Bush is expected to seek an 80-day suspension of a West Coast lockout that has crippled trade, after he reviews a report on the labor dispute’s impact by a special panel he created Monday.

It would mark the first effort in a quarter-century to end a work stoppage under the Taft-Hartley Act, which regulates some labor-management relations.

Bush created a board of inquiry to determine the impact of the lockout and could petition the U.S. District Court in San Francisco as early as today to halt the lockout for 80 days, an administration official said.

Monday’s move came hours after contract negotiations between workers and management collapsed. Port operators and manufacturers’ groups applauded the move, but the longshoremen accused the administration of trying to break the union. The workers have been locked out, without pay, by management.

In an executive order, Bush gave the board of inquiry one day to report back to him, and the Labor Department official said the administration would ask the U.S. District Court in San Francisco for an 80-day cooling-off period. Though the administration promised an unbiased examination of the lockout, Bush appeared to have made up his mind that it was hurting national security and the economy, and merited federal intervention.

“A continuation of this lockout, if permitted to continue, will imperil the national health and safety,” Bush wrote in his executive order.

“Ordinary Americans are being seriously harmed by this dispute,” Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said. “Family farmers and ranchers are being devastated by the shutdown. Millions, if not billions of dollars of American produce, meat and poultry are rotting in containers on the docks and on idled trucks and rail cars.” The lockout has already caused layoffs, and could prompt thousands more, her department said.

The department also warned the lockout could hurt national security, because the armed forces and defense contractors rely on commercial ships that use West Coast ports.

The formation of the board of inquiry a step taken only rarely by presidents is required under the Taft-Hartley Act before the president can order management to let the workers back in. Bush’s next step would be to make his case in federal court, with Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft asking for a ruling that the dispute is hurting entire industries and jeopardizing national health or safety.

Jimmy Carter was the last president to seek to use Taft-Hartley to end a work stoppage in the coal industry in 1978. The court refused to order the 80-day cooling off period but did order miners back to work under a temporary restraining order. Bush is the first president to invoke Taft-Hartley, passed in 1947, during a lockout, as opposed to a strike.