Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced he will hand over power to the son of Singapore's founding father within a month - formalising the rise of a new generation of leaders.

By taking up the city-state's top job on Aug 12, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will assume the post that his father, Lee Kuan Yew, vacated for Goh 14 years earlier.

The pre-ordained transfer of power is a formality that ushers into power the new generation headed by Lee, 52, a British-educated mathematician and former brigadier-general long seen as a prime minister-in-waiting.

Goh "will formally advise the President (SR Nathan) to appoint Deputy Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong to succeed him," said a statement from the prime minister's office.

Lee "has the unanimous support" of the members of parliament belonging to the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), and will be sworn in at 8:00 pm on Aug 12 at the Istana state complex, it added.

Meteoric rise

He is the eldest child of Senior Minister Lee, 80, who ruled Singapore for 31 years before stepping down as prime minister in 1990.

The handover was announced after key foreign visits by the 63-year-old Goh to the Middle East and by Lee to Taiwan, which had been roundly criticised by China.

The PAP controls all but two seats in parliament and Lee's takeover had long been anticipated after Goh picked him as his preferred successor following the last general elections held in 2001.

The younger Lee's imminent elevation to the top post will cap a remarkable academic, military and political career in which he has long been groomed to be the nation's leader.

Lee entered the nation's armed forces after graduating from England's prestigious Cambridge University with first class honours in mathematics.

He quickly rose through the ranks and ended his military career as a brigadier-general in 1984 at the age of just 32 to follow his father into politics as a member of the PAP.

In what political analysts have described as a "meteoric" rise through Singapore's political system, Lee was appointed deputy prime minister to serve under Goh Chok Tong in 1990 at the age of 38.

Aside from his deputy prime ministerial duties, which he currently shares with Co-ordinating Minister for Defence and Security Tony Tan, he was appointed central bank chairman in 1998 and finance minister in 2001, positions he still holds.

Lee's political future was placed in doubt when he was diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system in 1992, but, after a period of treatment during which he scaled down his public activities, he was declared cancer-free.

Seat warmer

Goh, a former shipping executive, had initially been seen as a seat warmer when be took over from the elder Lee.

But he proved sceptics wrong by lasting 14 years, carving his own niche and having long emerged from his famous predecessor's shadow.

Goh had promised step down after he had fixed the economy from the impact of a severe recession in 2001, the war against terrorism, the US-led war against Iraq and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak.

A projected economic growth of up to nine percent this year, which would make Singapore one of Asia's best-performing economies, provides a fitting sendoff for Goh.

Under Goh's watch, the government undertook a major and successful restructuring of the economy to cope with the fast-rising giants of China and India, as well as other countries in the region.

The city-state shed much of its low-end manufacturing industries and turned towards value-added sectors, such as biomedicine and high-end semiconductor products, which are now the drivers of Singapore's enviable economic growth.

Singapore also negotiated a web of free-trade agreements with major trading partners as part of a grand strategy to expand beyond the small domestic market.