The court, bitterly opposed by the United States, is the first permanent world tribunal set up to prosecute individuals for war crimes, genocide and other gross human right violations and will sit in the Hague, Netherlands.

The following countries have ratified the treaty:

Albania, Afghanistan, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil, Britain, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Central African Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Honduras, Hungary and Iceland.

Ireland, Italy, Jordan, South Korea, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mongolia, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zambia.

Citing government sources, the report said the Canadian Treasury Board has been asked to find funding to provide interest-free loans to beef farmers, feed lot operators and renderers.

The government has approved loan guarantees for beef industry businesses affected by the crisis of up to 10 million Canadian dollars (about 700,000 US dollars) each.

Canadian Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief is expected to unveil the aid package Friday when he meets with agricultural officials from three western provinces.

Western provinces have been asking for a compensation package of 400 million Canadian dollars (about 300 million US dollars) that calls for cost sharing between industry, the provinces and the federal government.

The mad cow crisis started on May 20 when Canada announced that one cow in western province of Alberta had tested positive for madcow disease. The United States, Japan and many other countries immediately banned imports of Canadian beef products. Canada exports beef products worth about 2.8 billion US dollars a year.

Speaking at a press conference, John Barry, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, believed the bolt threat must be addressed before US space agency NASA returns the three remaining space shuttles back to flight.

The whole US shuttle fleet was grounded since Columbia broke upon Feb. 1, killing all seven astronauts on board.

"This is a possible return-to-flight issue that we're examining," Barry said, hinting that the bolt issue may delay NASA's future shuttle launch.

The 0.6-meter-long bolts attaching solid rocket boosters to external fuel tank are usually severed through small explosions shortly after launch, permitting the exhausted boosters to separate from the space shuttle and later to be discarded, said the investigators.

To prevent the severed bolts from hitting the shuttle, cylinder-shaped devices, called the "bolt catchers," are designed to capture the break-apart bolts.

However, tests revealed that "the bolt catcher is not as robustas it should be," said retired navy admiral Harold Gehman Jr., chairman of the Columbia investigation board.

Radar images showed that 126 seconds after Columbia's launch onJan. 16, 2003, a debris was falling away from the space shuttle, which the investigators suspected might have been related to the failure of the bolt catcher to hold a severed bolt.

Weighing about 18 kilograms, a severed bolt could be "potentially catastrophic" to the space shuttle, Barry said.

But he stressed there is no evidence indicating that a loose bolt contributed to the breakup of Columbia.

For that reason, the investigators are not changing their working scenario, which sees a foam breaking away from the external fuel tank 81 seconds after Columbia's liftoff as the rootcause of the accident, he added.

Under the scenario, superheated gases penetrated a hole where the foam struck Columbia's left wing and destroyed the shuttle during its reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.

"More than 40,000 books were sold in 24 hours; it's a tremendous amount of books," said Carolyn Brown, director of communications at Barnes & Noble, the world's largest book seller.

"We expected Living History to be the best-selling biography of the summer and think the momentum will continue through the fall," Brown said.

Early Tuesday afternoon, the book Living History was in first place on Barnes & Noble's Top 100 online sales.

In the tell-all book, Senator Hillary Clinton talked about suchpainful and controversial topics as her failed effort to reform health care, her husband Bill Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his impeachment.

Publisher Simon & Schuster ordered 1 million copies for its first printing, an unusually high number for a work of political nonfiction. The publisher has agreed to pay 8 million US dollars for the book.

After seeing the turnout on Monday, the publisher decided to print another 50,000 copies, spokeswoman Victoria Meyer said.

As part of a heavy media blitz to promote the book, Clinton hasgranted some high-profile television interviews.

On Monday, more than 1,000 people received a signed copy of hermemoir at a Manhattan bookstore in New York as the book made its debut in the bookstores.

The book is 528 pages spread over 38 chapters, not counting theacknowledgments and index. The retail price of the hardcover book is 28 dollars.

Hillary Clinton denied that she has the ambition to run for US president. "I have no intention of running for president," HillaryClinton said in an interview with Time magazine in which excerpts from the book were published Monday.