Singapore, Aug 17: Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said today the son of the city-state's founding father Lee Kuan Yew will succeed him as premier when he steps down, possibly in 2005. The appointment of the son, Lee Hsien Loong, as leader has been widely expected. The longtime civil servant, who is currently deputy prime minister, is considered by many to embody a more-conservative faction of the ruling people's action party.

``I'd like to give my successor at least two years before he fights the next general elections,'' Goh said during his national day rally speech. The next general elections are expected in 2007.

Goh said he would not step down until he brings Singapore out of its current economic slump, its worst ever. Goh, 62, took the country's reins from Lee Kuan Yew in 1990 and has presided over the country during a decade in which it enjoyed both double digit economic growth and suffered crippling recessions.

The ascendant Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was born in 1952. He holds degrees from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and Harvard University in the United States.

Goh said the younger Lee knows that many see him as a hard-nosed, no-nonsense politician and he has vowed to do more to try to connect with the city-state's 4 million people. Bureau Report