Washington ? Following a last-minute strategy session with outside advisers last Friday on how to rally support a potential Supreme Court nominee, a small group of President Bush’s closest aides is poised to take a short list of names into the Oval Office should Chief Justice William Rehnquist step down.

Bush then would be expected to move quickly to name a successor, perhaps within days, despite speculation on Capitol Hill that the president could delay making an announcement, a top administration official has told the Chicago Tribune.

Top officials – including Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, who also is under consideration to fill any Supreme Court vacancy – have met with possible nominees and researched their backgrounds. White House aides met Friday with four leading conservative advisers, including former Atty. Gen. Ed Meese and former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray, to discuss the confirmation process.

After months of preparation, the White House now is stepping back and awaiting word from Rehnquist. Eighty years old and gravely ill with thyroid cancer, Rehnquist is widely expected to step down in the near future, giving Bush his first nomination to the high court.

“We won’t take the next step until there’s a vacancy. Then everything will be compressed,” the administration official said. “It will be on a very tight time frame.”

The official said Bush’s most trusted advisers will discuss the choice with him, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Gonzales, chief of staff Andrew Card, White House Counsel Harriet Miers and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove.

Gonzales, Card, Miers and Rove already have held lengthy discussions over the prospective nominees, the official said. They are focusing most closely on a handful of federal judges, with Gonzales held in a separate category for the president to consider, the official has said.

Hearings on the nominee in the Senate Judiciary Committee could take place within four to six weeks of an announcement, immediately after a background investigation is complete, a GOP congressional aide said Tuesday.

Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., would consider having hearings in August, when the Senate is on recess, or immediately upon conclusion of the background checks, the congressional staffer said.

Bush often has said he would like to name a Hispanic to the Supreme Court, and Gonzales would be a historic pick as chief justice. But conservatives chafe at the thought of Gonzales replacing Rehnquist, who is viewed as a conservative icon, sources said.

They point to Gonzales’ decisions as a Texas Supreme Court justice striking down some state abortion regulations, as well his insistence as White House counsel against taking a hard line opposing affirmative action.

“Does he care enough that that would stop him?” the official said of whether Bush would nominate Gonzales over conservative opposition. “It would be a benefit to the party over a long period of time, and it would be historic.”

Of Bush’s decision, he said: “It will be a very personal choice.”

The official said the White House has seriously considered a handful of federal judges, including J. Michael Luttig and J. Harvie Wilkinson, of the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit; John Roberts Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Samuel Alito, of the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit; and Michael McConnell, of the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.