WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Republican senator condemned the Internal Revenue Service on Saturday for singling out conservative political groups for extra scrutiny, while the IRS described the incident as isolated and not politically motivated.

"When we start letting the IRS impose its will on people and doing it in a partisan, biased way, then we're exposing our country to some real problems," Senator Orrin Hatch told Reuters.

The Utah lawmaker spoke a day after an IRS official apologized for the practice, which has embarrassed the tax-collecting agency and could haunt the Obama administration.

"I suspect there are some whistleblowers ready to come out and expose this and that's why (the IRS) came out and apologized ... . Whoever did this ought to be exposed," Hatch said.

An investigative report on the issue is expected within days from the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, requested the report last year after accusing the IRS of targeting conservative groups.

He has vowed to investigate, and the House committee he chairs has the power to issue subpoenas.

At least one other congressional panel intends to hold hearings, giving Republicans multiple opportunities to hammer the agency and the White House over the affair that had been brewing for months.

BEYOND CINCINNATI?

In an interview with Reuters before speaking at a legal conference, Hatch said the IRS should "come forth and quit acting like this was just some obscure number of employees in Cincinnati," an IRS paperwork processing center.

"I doubt seriously if it was just in Cincinnati," he said on the sidelines of the American Bar Association conference in Washington.

On Friday at the same conference, Lois Lerner, director of the IRS tax-exempt office, publicly apologized for subjecting conservative political groups to "inappropriate" scrutiny.

In a practice that drew complaints during the 2012 general election campaign, groups with the words "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their names were flagged for closer IRS review when they applied to the agency for tax-exempt status.

"We would like to apologize for that," said Lerner. She said the practice "was absolutely incorrect and it was inappropriate."

She also said the scrutiny was "absolutely not" influenced by the Obama administration.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said after Lerner spoke that the IRS action as they were reported were "inappropriate."

"And we would fully expect the investigation to be thorough and for corrections to be made in a case like this," he said.

Lerner said revenue agents in Cincinnati targeted the conservative groups "without talking to managers" and that politics had played no role in the screening.

The Cincinnati staffers were trying to deal with a crush of applications for tax-exempt status by using key words to get through the paperwork faster, she said.

About 300 applications were initially flagged for closer scrutiny. Of those, 75 were chosen for that treatment based on the presence of the key words in their names. Lerner said none of the applicants was denied tax-exempt status.

Each year the IRS reviews as many as 60,000 tax-exempt applications from groups ranging from charities to labor unions. Some are classified as 501(c)(4) groups after the section of the tax code that makes them tax-exempt. Such organizations can collect money from anonymous donors and spend it on advertising.

PRESERVING TAX-EXEMPT STATUS

To get and keep their tax-exempt status, 501(c)(4) groups cannot endorse a political candidate or a political party.

The number of groups seeking 501(c)(4) status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, coinciding in part with the surge of Tea Party enthusiasm. In 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court issued its "Citizens United" decision lifting government limits on corporate spending in federal elections.

Consumer groups have been pushing the IRS to clarify the standards for "social welfare organizations," as they are known in Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, to ensure that they are not abusing their tax-exempt status.

Last year then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said there was no targeting of conservatives by the IRS.

Shulman stepped down at the end of the year when his term ended, and Steven Miller was named acting head of the agency that each year collects federal tax revenue and enforces the tax laws.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Xavier Briand)

The veteran ABC News anchor is set to announce Monday morning on "The View" that she will retire from TV journalism next summer.

ABC said in an announcement late Sunday that, until then, Walters will continue to anchor and report for the network, anchor specials throughout the year, and appear on "The View." She will remain executive producer of "The View," the weekday talk show she created in 1997.

The 83-year-old Walters has spent 37 years at ABC News, joining the network in 1976 to become the first female co-anchor on an evening news program. Three years later, she became a co-host of ABC's "20/20" newsmagazine.

Before coming to ABC, she spent 15 years at NBC News, where she was a co-host of the "Today" show.

"I am very happy with my decision," Walters said, "and look forward to a wonderful and special year ahead.

"I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain," she added. "I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women and, OK, some men, too who will be taking my place."

ABC News President Ben Sherwood said "there is only one Barbara Walters. We look forward to making her final year on television as remarkable, path-breaking and news-making as Barbara herself.

"We look forward to a year befitting her brilliant career," he said, "filled with exclusive interviews, great adventures and indelible memories."

___

Online:

www.abc.com

ABC announced its programming plans on Friday.

New comedies include "Mixology," which focuses on singles looking for love, and "Trophy Wife," starring Bradley Whitford and Marcia Gay Harden.

Another comedy, "Super Fun Night," stars and was written by Rebel Wilson ("Bridesmaids"). "Back in the Game" stars Maggie Wilson as a single mom who, with her son, moves back in with her cranky, ex-athlete dad (James Caan). "The Goldbergs" is a family comedy set in the 1980s.

New dramas also include "Killer Women," about Texas Rangers including a lone woman Ranger in the violent Texas frontier.

"Mind Games" pairs Steve Zahn and Christian Slater as brothers and partners in an agency committed to solving clients' problems through psychological manipulation.

"Lucky 7" focuses on seven New York City gas-station employees chipping into a lottery pool for months with high hopes. "Betrayal" pits two lovers on opposite sides of a murder investigation.

And on "Resurrection," the citizens of Arcadia, Mo., find their lives changed forever when deceased loved ones start to return.

Among its plans, the network is saying farewell to cancelled series "Happy Endings," ''Body of Proof" and "Malibu Country."

The network is bringing back 10 current series including "Once Upon a Time," ''Modern Family," ''Scandal," ''Grey's Anatomy," ''Castle" and "Nashville."

The official unveiling of ABC's fall schedule takes place Tuesday.

___

Online:

www.abc.com

With his younger brother following along and constantly pushing him, Moore became a rising talent in action sports.

The innovative freestyle snowmobile rider, who was hurt in a crash at the Winter X Games in Colorado, died Thursday morning. He was 25.

Moore had been undergoing care at a hospital in Grand Junction since the Jan. 24 crash. Family spokeswoman Chelsea Lawson confirmed his death, the first in the 18-year history of the X Games.

"He lived his life to the fullest. He was an inspiration," Lawson said.

A former all-terrain vehicle racer, Moore switched over to snowmobiles as a teenager and quickly rose to the top of the sport. He won four Winter X Games medals, including a bronze last season when his younger brother, Colten, captured gold.

Caleb Moore was attempting a backflip in the freestyle event in Aspen last week when the skis on his 450-pound snowmobile caught the lip of the landing area, sending him flying over the handlebars. Moore landed face first into the snow with his snowmobile rolling over him.

Moore stayed down for quite some time, before walking off with help and going to a hospital to treat a concussion. Moore developed bleeding around his heart and was flown to a hospital in Grand Junction for surgery. The family later said that Moore, of Krum, Texas, also had a complication involving his brain.

Colten Moore was injured in a separate crash that same night. He suffered a separated pelvis in the spill.

The family said in a statement they were grateful for all the prayers and support they have received from people around the world.

X Games officials expressed their condolences and said Moore, a four-time X Games medallist , would be remembered "for his natural passion for life and his deep love for his family and friends."

B.C. Vaught, Caleb Moore's agent for almost a decade, said he first saw Moore when he was racing an ATV in Minnesota and signed him up to star in some action sports movies.

Later, Moore wanted to make the switch from ATVs to snowmobiles and Vaught helped him. A natural talent, it only took Moore two weeks to master a difficult backflip.

Moore honed his skills in Krum, a town about 5,000 people 50 miles northwest of Dallas that rarely sees snow. Instead, he worked on tricks by launching his sled into a foam pit. After a brief training run on snow ramps in Michigan, he was ready for his sport's biggest stage the 2010 Winter X Games.

In that contest, Moore captured a bronze in freestyle and finished sixth in best trick. Two years later, his biography on ESPN said, "Caleb Moore has gone from 'beginner's luck' to 'serious threat.'"

That was hardly a surprise to Vaught, who said, "Whatever he wanted to do, he did it."

Vaught said Moore didn't believe his sport was too extreme, but rather "it was a lifestyle." He was good at it along with ATV racing as he accumulated a garage full of trophies.

Fellow snowmobile rider Levi LaVallee recently described Moore as a "fierce competitor."

"A very creative mind," LaVallee said. "I've watched him try some crazy, crazy tricks and some of them were successful, some of them not so much. But he was first guy to get back on a sled and go try it again. It shows a lot of heart."

X Games officials said in a statement that they would conduct a thorough review of freestyle snowmobiling events and adopt any appropriate changes.

"For 18 years, we have worked closely on safety issues with athletes, course designers and other experts. Still, when the world's best compete at the highest level in any sport, risks remain," they said, noting that Moore was hurt performing a move he had done several times before.

ISLA NEGRA, Chile (Reuters) - The body of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, dead nearly four decades, was exhumed on Monday after his former driver said the poet was poisoned under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

Neruda, famed for his passionate love poems and staunch communist views, is presumed to have died from prostate cancer on September 23, 1973.

But Manuel Araya, who was Neruda's chauffer during the ailing writer's last few months, says agents of the dictatorship took advantage of his illness to inject poison into his stomach while he was bedridden at the Santa Maria clinic in Santiago.

"We're hoping for a positive result because Neruda was assassinated. Pinochet made an error when he ordered Neruda be killed," said Araya. Results are expected in coming months.

Neruda was a supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende, who was toppled in a military coup on September 11, 1973, nearly two weeks before the poet's death at age 69. Around 3,000 people are thought to have been killed by the brutal 17-year-long dictatorship that ensued.

Neruda was buried in his coastal home of Isla Negra beside his third wife, Matilde Urrutia.

His remains will be brought to Santiago for analysis. Some samples could be sent to laboratories abroad.

Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto, better known by his pen name Pablo Neruda, was a larger-than-life fixture in Chile's literary and political scene.

While best known for his collection "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair," published in 1924, Neruda was also an important political activist during a turbulent time in Chile.

He organized a ship to bring about 2,000 Spanish refugees fleeing the civil war there to Chile in 1939, campaigned for Allende and was ambassador to France during the socialist's presidency.

The Andean country's intelligentsia frequently congregated in Isla Negra, as well as in his Santiago home "La Chascona" - so named for his then-mistress Urrutia's messy red hair - and La Sebastiana, his ship-themed home in the port town of Valparaiso.

Democratically elected Allende committed suicide in the presidential palace as it was under attack by the military, experts confirmed last year, amid accusations he had been murdered during the coup.

Chilean courts are also investigating the death of ex-President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who is presumed to have died in 1982 of an infection after a hernia operation. Some say he was poisoned by Pinochet's agents.

(Reporting By Rodrigo Garrido; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Eric Beech)

1-PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Regular season record: 36-12-0

How they qualified: Won Atlantic division

Head coach: Dan Bylsma

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: Four (1991, 1992, 2008, 2009)

Stanley Cup championships: Three (1991, 1992, 2009)

- -

2-MONTREAL CANADIENS

Regular season record: 29-14-5

How they qualified: Won Northeast division

Head coach: Michel Therrien

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: 34 (1916, 1917, 1919,1924, 1925, 1930, 1931, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1986, 1989, 1993)

Stanley Cup championships: 24 (1916, 1924, 1930, 1931, 1944, 1946, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1986, 1993)

- -

3-WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Regular season record: 27-18-3

How they qualified: Won Southeast division

Head coach: Adam Oates

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: One (1998)

Stanley Cup championships: None

- -

4-BOSTON BRUINS

Regular season record: 28-14-6

How they qualified: Fourth in Eastern Conference

Head coach: Claude Julien

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: 18 (1927, 1929, 1930, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1946, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1988, 1990, 2011)

Stanley Cup championships: Six (1929, 1939, 1941, 1970, 1972, 2011)

- -

5-TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Regular season record: 26-17-5

How they qualified: Fifth in Eastern Conference

Head coach: Randy Carlyle

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: 21 (1918, 1922, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967)

Stanley Cup championships: 13 (1918, 1922, 1932, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967)

- -

6-NEW YORK RANGERS

Regular season record: 26-18-4

How they qualified: Sixth in Eastern Conference

Head coach: John Tortorella

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: 10 (1928, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1940, 1950, 1972, 1979, 1994)

Stanley Cup championships: Four (1928, 1933, 1940, 1994)

- -

7-OTTAWA SENATORS

Regular season record: 25-17-6

How they qualified: Seventh in Eastern Conference

Head coach: Paul MacLean

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: One (2007)

Stanley Cup championships: None

- -

8-NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Regular season record: 24-17-7

How they qualified: Eighth in Eastern Conference

Head coach: Jack Capuano

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: Five (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984)

Stanley Cup championships: Four (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983)

- -

(Compiled by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Julian Linden)

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Veteran singers and songwriters Kenny Rogers, Bobby Bare and "Cowboy" Jack Clement will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, organizers said on Wednesday, achieving one of the highest honors in the music industry.

Rogers, 74, the husky-voiced three-time Grammy winner best known for songs like The Gambler" and "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town," will be inducted in the "Modern Era" category, the Country Music Association announced.

"Everything pales in comparison to this," Rogers said, tearing up because the honor came in his lifetime.

"My older sons thought I was already in here. Maybe now I can really impress them," he told Reuters, referring to his 8-year-old twin sons from his fifth marriage.

Rogers, a country-pop crossover artist who scored a big hit with the 1983 duet "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton, has charted hit singles in each of the past six decades, and is due to play at the Glastonbury pop music festival in England in June.

Wednesday's three new inductees will bring membership of the Country Music Hall of Fame to 121 since its creation in 1961, including the likes of Parton, Elvis Presley, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson.

Bare, 78, was born in Ohio and moved to California, where he had a hit with "The All American Boy" in the pop field in 1959. He later moved to Nashville, was signed to a record deal by guitar player Chet Atkins, and went on to have hits with "Detroit City," and "500 Miles Away From Home."

"This is real huge," Bare said on Wednesday. "This is the culmination of a 19-year-old boy's dream who left Ohio to be a singer."

Clements, 82, is a producer and songwriter from Texas who moved to Memphis just as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, whom he discovered, were breaking into the music scene in the mid-1950s.

He persuaded George Jones to record one of his early hits, "She Thinks I Still Care," and also persuaded a record label to sign Charley Pride, one of the few African-American singers to make it big in the country music scene.

Clement, who also produced tracks in Memphis for U2's "Rattle and Hum" album, will be inducted as a non-performer in the ceremony to be held later this year at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)

When he's not always cooking his own meals, Hopkins shifts interests toward tasteful decor. He keeps his eyes peeled and behind Prada glasses for the latest trends in interior decorating so he can spruce up his Philadelphia condo or other properties.

"I've sort of got an eye for nice things," he said.

And that's a good thing. Because Hopkins can land another accessory that he can't buy at Whole Foods or charge at a swanky retail store. At 48, Hopkins is not only still fighting, he's trying to break his own record as the oldest boxer to win a major championship. His longevity is legendary in a sport that can chew up and knock out the best long before 40, or, at worst, leave an aging prize fighter a battered shell of his prime.

His 63rd career pro bout ahead, Hopkins has no interest in growing into another sad statistic. He vows he'll leave the sport the same way he's spent his career on his feet and on top.

At some point, Hopkins will retire. He has to, right? He'll get beat bad and go out with critics howling he hung on too long or win a belt and quit as an I-told-you-so champion.

Either way, Hopkins will eventually decide it's time to hang up the gloves. Hopkins will not fight until he's collecting Social Security.

Then again, Hopkins heard the calls to retire at 40. And at 45. The years go on.

Yet, here he is, still eschewing booze, desserts and any desire to retire on anyone's terms but his own. Hopkins will try to prove he's still championship material when he fights undefeated Tavoris Cloud (24-0, 19 KOs) for a piece of the 175-pound light heavyweight title Saturday night at Barclays Center in New York. Hopkins dethroned George Foreman as the oldest boxer to win a world title when he beat Jean Pascal in 2011. Foreman was 45 years, 10 months when he knocked out heavyweight champion Michael Moorer in 1994. Hopkins was 46 years, 4 months and 6 days in his bout with Pascal.

Hopkins hasn't fought since he dropped the WBC light heavyweight title in a majority decision to Chad Dawson in April 2012. One more loss, and Hopkins could find title fights and premium cable network bouts dry up as a new generation of fighters like fellow Philadelphian Danny Garcia take charge.

"I know my performance is going to make some people happy," Hopkins said, "and it's going to make some people wish I'd get out of the way."

Hopkins has never been about glitz and knockout power, but of crafting a disciplined career straight from the pages of March Madness. Survive and advance. Never a stylistically crowd-pleasing fighter, Hopkins hasn't knocked out an opponent since Oscar De La Hoya in September 2004 14 fights ago.

His bouts have been decided by decision since, except for a draw in the first Jean Pascal fight in 2010 and an ugly no-contest in the first Dawson fight.

So why keep fighting? Why not retire? Hopkins will answer some form of that question more times in a news conference than all his fights over a decade.

He has no shortage of answers for why he's facing Cloud, from money ("I'm just getting what was there years ago, but they gave to James Toney and Roy Jones.") to finishing off faded promoter Don King's dwindling stable ("I've made a career off his guys.") to proving he's still the ferocious competitor of a decade ago when he successfully defended his middleweight title a whopping 20 straight times ("It takes away from my legacy when I don't win.").

Hopkins was convicted at age 17 of robbery and assault, and spent nearly five years in prison. That time behind bars in the 1980s gave him more reason to want to exercise his freedoms like the right to decide his immediate future whenever he pleases. Oddly, one more championship belt around his waist is mostly an afterthought.

"I've got 11 belts at home in the trophy case I can look at if I need to look at belts," he said. "It's a trophy. It represents something. But right now, I'm not bigger than boxing, but I'm bigger than belts."

Hopkins has never been stopped, but Cloud could be the fighter who earns that awaited KO against the man better known in the ring as B-Hop.

Nazim Richardson, Hopkins' long-time trainer, favorably compared Cloud's punching power to Antonio Tarver and Felix Trinidad. Hopkins, naturally, beat both of those fighters. Richardson said the only time he ever advised Hopkins to retire was after the Tarver win in 2006, not because of fading skills, but to build on the legacy his star fighter talks so often about preserving.

"I thought if he left then, anybody who left on sports on top, it'd be called, 'The B-Hop,'" Richardson said. "I thought, 'The B-Hop' would be called leaving on top of the sport."

Hopkins is opening his wallet to keep former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier's name on top of the Philly sports scene. Hopkins has pledged to pay the balance on a fundraising effort to place a statue of Frazier at Xfinity Live, an entertainment complex near Philadelphia's three sports stadiums.

Lawyer Richard Hayden, who represents Xfinity Live, has been scouting locations on the site and said the $150,000 needed for the statue, plus a maintenance fund, is close to completion.

"He very generously offered to be the last money in," Hayden said.

Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in "The Fight of the Century" 42 years ago Friday at Madison Square Garden. Fitting then, that Hopkins is fighting in New York for the first time since be beat Trinidad two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. He just finished a run through Central Park training for the Sept. 15 bout at the Garden when the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

He tried to leave the city but wasn't able to because of travel restrictions. Instead, he trained in the Bronx. He would go on to defeat Trinidad in a unification bout to become the undisputed champion a proud moment he said he never really got to truly enjoy because of all the horror and sadness leading to the fight.

"That was a huge night," he said. "In a good way and a bad way I'm part of history."

He looks to make history again in New York, this time as the ageless wonder and the oldest champ.

___

Follow Dan Gelston on Twitter: http://twitter.com/APgelston

Still, she spends most of her time on her cellphone checking email, Facebook, Pinterest and watching Netflix. At bedtime, she stays on her phone or laptop until after I have gone to bed. When she comes to bed, she ignores me and goes straight to sleep, even if I have been lying there awake in the dark waiting for her.

Has she fallen in love with her cellphone? Even if we don't have sex all the time, I would just like to be able to talk to her or hold her for a minute before we go to sleep. Any suggestions other than throwing her phone out the window? -- ABANDONED HUSBAND IN UTAH

DEAR ABANDONED: You say your wife has responded and things are hopeful. That means she is at least receptive to working on your marital relationship.

The problems that cellphones cause in relationships is something I am hearing about with increasing frequency. People have become so dependent upon their digital companions that in some cases it's impossible to turn them off because people have become literally addicted.

In cases like this, a licensed therapist should be consulted. Of course, like any addiction the sufferer must be willing to admit there is a problem and want to do something about it. I wish there was a 12-step program to which I could refer you, but I was unable to locate one. In the future I'm willing to bet that they'll sprout up like mushrooms.

DEAR ABBY: Six months ago, I realized I had a drinking problem and decided to go through a chemical dependence program as an outpatient. I'm sober now and attend meetings a few times a week. My problem is someone I was barely acquainted with was also in the same program. I didn't regard it as a problem at first, but now I'm concerned.

At a meeting a few months ago, I mentioned to the group that I also attend a meeting in another town closer to my home. Next thing I know, this man is attending the same meeting. He always makes a point of telling me about what's going on with the people we went through treatment with.

I am active in service work and plan to attend a regional meeting at a resort over a weekend. Guess who has suddenly decided to do the same?

I'm nervous about being around this man. I don't want to compromise his sobriety, but I can't stand seeing him at every meeting and event I attend. My husband is also bothered by it, and I'm considering not attending any meetings at all because he's creeping me out. How should I handle this? -- SOBER AND CREEPED OUT

DEAR CREEPED OUT: If there is a group moderator or contact, discuss this with that person. Because you want less contact with your "admirer," look around for another group. Even if you will have to travel a bit farther, it will be worth the effort.

If you do happen to run into him in the future and he tries to engage you in conversation about other patients from your program, cut the conversation short by telling him you are not interested in hearing about them. One of the hallmarks of 12-step programs is anonymity -- and it should be respected.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in "What Every Teen Should Know." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

LONDON (Reuters) - Mark Carney is gearing up for what some have called a mission impossible: turn around Britain's ailing economy, fix its banks and lead an overhaul of the Bank of England.

Currently head of the Bank of Canada, Britain's finance minister called Carney "the outstanding central banker of his generation."

But he may struggle if he pushes for quick change at the BoE, despite its dramatically expanded powers.

A first challenge for the BoE's only foreign governor in 319 years will be to temper expectations when he starts in July.

"Wanted, a new governor of the Bank of England. Only superhumans need apply," was how Ed Balls, an opposition Labor party lawmaker who was at the heart of the decision to give the bank control of interest rates in 1997, put it last year.

Britain may have slipped back into recession. Policymakers are split over what to do next and the government insists it will not spend more to get growth going again.

Carney has said his role would not be "a super governor position" and he would work with fellow policymakers to tackle "the immense challenges" ahead for the $2.5 trillion economy.

The 48 year-old has already had a taste of what he can expect from Britain's media when newspapers splashed details of his pay and benefits worth more than 850,000 pounds a year.

That kind of deal may seem normal to a former Goldman Sachs banker like Carney. But it contrasts with the mood across much of Britain, which is three years into an austerity program, and adds to the glare of the spotlight on him.

Unusually for a central banker, Carney may also have to contend with speculation that he has ambitions to enter politics one day, something he had to deny categorically in November.

Yet Carney's appointment has been widely welcomed and former policymakers say his can-do style will give the BoE new impetus.

He has signaled his preference for giving clear guidance on where monetary policy is going - something long opposed by the man he will replace, Mervyn King.

Carney can also help reshape the bank's upper echelons over the coming year when two of his deputies are expected to leave.

Britain's finance minister George Osborne, whose austerity plan is running behind schedule and looks unlikely to return the economy to full health before the 2015 elections, is certainly hoping he will rise to the challenge.

But it remains to be seen whether the new governor can win support from the BoE's independent policymakers for change.

Four of the nine Monetary Policy Committee(MPC) members are "external" members who are expected to balance internal thinking within the bank known as the "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street."

John Gieve, a former deputy governor, thinks Carney can muster support for a new approach.

"He is coming in as a leader. He's a confident guy. He's an experienced central banker who knows the patch and a few of the senior people at the Bank of England already," he said. "Many at the bank will welcome a change, but for an institution which has been run by insiders for 20 years it will be a big shock."

CHANGE OF THE GUARD

The BoE has been dominated by King for two decades, first as its chief economist and then governor. He pioneered the inflation-targeting system now widely used by many countries.

For much of that time, Britain enjoyed growth. But the good times were fuelled by growing debt that plunged the country into its deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Osborne, once close to King, has shown signs of frustration that the BoE has not lived up to his hopes of "monetary activism" that would help offset his spending cuts.

The bank has kept interest rates at a record low of 0.5 percent for four years and spent 375 billion pounds on government debt, or a quarter of gross domestic product, far more than the U.S. Federal Reserve by that measure.

Still the economy remains stagnant and Osborne has made clear his desire for more action from the central bank.

Just in time for Carney's arrival, Osborne reworded the bank's mandate, keeping the 2-percent inflation target but also opening the door for possible new attempts to revive growth.

But Carney will find it harder to push through changes than he did in Canada. King has failed to get support from policymakers for more bond-buying in recent months, a stand-off hard to imagine at other big central banks.

Making a commitment to keeping British interest rates rock bottom for a set period - a relatively modest option by the standards of post-crisis policy-making - would be a challenge.

The Bank of Canada did just that under Carney in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis, burnishing his reputation as a creative thinker. But the decision was taken by Carney and his deputies, with no need to get external policymakers on board.

Carney is believed to have used a visit to London in late March to sound out some of the external members of the MPC.

"In the UK, policy can change with the shift of one or two votes on the MPC," said Andrew Sentance, a BoE policymaker between 2006 and 2011.

"When the MPC is divided on policy - as it is at present and has often been over the course of its history - forward guidance could be quickly undermined by a shift in the views of a minority of MPC members."

EARLY TEST

Osborne has told the bank's top policymakers to report back to him in August, a month after Carney's arrival, on the merits of steps taken by the U.S. central bank to convince markets that its massive help for the economy won't be reined in quickly.

The Federal Reserve said in December it would keep interest rates near zero as long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and inflation expectations do not hit 2.5 percent.

Osborne has asked what indicators might work in Britain.

Rob Wood, a former BoE economist, said some MPC members might be open to specific guidance, having signaled they will ignore above-target inflation while wage pressures remain weak.

The response to Osborne gives Carney an early chance to get the bank behind a broad agreement that guidance can help underpin an economic recovery before he tries to thrash out specific thresholds, possibly based on wage growth, he said.

"It's very unlikely to be a big bang but it could be a staging post for that change," said Wood, who now works for Berenberg Bank.

Even if Carney can secure a commitment to keep stimulus in place, there are doubts about how effective that would be.

"People are not expecting an interest rate increase for two to three years so the question arises: what more are you trying to persuade people of?" said Simon Hayes, a Barclays economist.

Carney might also be tempted to change the bank's Funding for Lending Scheme which has increased mortgage lending but has not had a big boost on loans flowing to small businesses.

Carney suggested in February he might favor ramping up the FLS. It gives banks and building societies access to cheap funds if they keep or raise lending to households and businesses.

Another way to help growth would be to relax capital buffers British banks must set aside above global minimum requirements, even if that would be a gamble against a surge in defaults.

In any case, many bankers say low levels of lending are really due to worries among businesses that there might not be enough demand from consumers to justify higher borrowing.

Carney has also suggested he would consider expanding the central bank's government bond-buying program to other assets.

The Fed has been buying mortgage-backed bonds for years to try to help the housing market, a pillar of the U.S. economy.

Sam Tombs, an economist with Capital Economics, said while the BoE might consider steps such as buying equities as radical options to kickstart growth, it was more likely it would stick to buying gilts, possibly increasing the pace to hold a total of 500 billion pounds by the second half of next year.

While most attention is focused on how Carney might try to revive the British economy, his biggest test maybe when the time comes to wean it off emergency support.

"This is the real challenge: how to manage rising interest rates and the impact on households who could really suffer," said Mark Garnier, a Conservative member of a parliamentary committee which scrutinizes the BoE.

BANKERS BEWARE

There are high hopes that Carney's experience and interest in banking - a contrast with King - will dovetail with the BoE's new powers for overseeing the City of London which is still reeling from the financial crisis.

Carney will continue to serve as head of the Financial Stability Board which sets rules for banks worldwide. His experience at the FSB shows he has a no-nonsense approach to complaints from bankers about reforms. In 2011, he clashed with the head of JP MorganChase, Jamie Dimon, over new capital rules.

"This is a significant change," said Gieve, the former BoE deputy governor. "Carney is more knowledgeable and interested in finance than King who hasn't disguised his low opinion of bankers."

Critics of King say his disinterest in the banking system meant the BoE did too little to tackle the build-up of risks that caused the financial crisis. A London banker said top executives had scarcely met with King beyond formal gatherings.

BoE officials have countered such criticism by saying the bank was not directly in charge of monitoring banks in the run-up to the crisis.

By contrast, Carney sharpened the focus of the Bank of Canada on the links between the banking sector and the economy and earlier this year he said a lack of trust in banks "deepened the cost of the crisis and is restraining the pace of recovery."

The BoE's new powers to ensure banks, insurers and building societies hold enough capital, curb bonuses and monitor risks, such as property bubbles, gives Carney a chance to leave his mark on a sector that is key to Britain's recovery hopes.

But given the scale of the central bank's increased power, there is a risk of overreaching.

"There is a massive management challenge," said former MPC member Sentance, saying Carney must delegate to his deputies.

"If the governor sits there trying to manage all these things himself, which is closer to the current governance style, you're going to struggle."

(Additional reporting by Louise Egan in Ottawa; editing by Anna Willard)