U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota announced on Tuesday that he has decided not to run for president at the next election.

"I concluded that I want to be here in the Senate, making a difference for my state and my country," Daschle said in a statement issued by his office.

Daschle's announcement came as something of a surprise since he had been widely expected to join up to a half dozen or so other congressional Democrats in seeking their party's 2004 presidential nomination. An announcement was planned for this weekend in his home of Aberdeen, South Dakota with a fly around the state and the key primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina to follow. In fact, some fellow Democrats were so sure he was running that some had already begun to jockey for position to replace him as the Senate's incoming minority leader.