Coping with a record-setting drought and facing a potential water shortage, Georgia officials have demanded that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stop releasing so much water from its reservoirs to its neighbors downstream - and have asked President Bush for help.

However Florida and Alabama officials have made their own presidential plea: Don't give in to Georgia's demands.

The tri-state water war has been playing out since the late 1980s. It has prompted a half-dozen federal lawsuits and plenty of finger-pointing, including charges that one state is favored over another. The dispute has outlasted three Florida governors.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has called for a truce, and a hopeful sign emerged Friday when a meeting of the three governors was scheduled for Thursday in Washington. The meeting is to include U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

On Friday, Kempthorne and Connaughton flew to Atlanta to meet with Perdue, and then to Montgomery, Ala., to meet with Riley.

Kristen Hellmer, spokeswoman for the council on environmental quality, called the conversations candid and productive.

As this water fight plays out, another is brewing out West. The same elements are there: exploding growth, a drought, not enough water to go around. Booming Las Vegas relies on the Colorado River for about 90 percent of its water. The river also supplies water to six other states.