Seeking a second successive major title on the over-50s Champions Tour, Perry birdied two of the three par-fives in challenging conditions on the way to a three-under-par 67 at Omaha Country Club.

Perry, who won last month's Senior Players Championship by two shots, managed to avoid the notoriously thick rough on the hilly layout to end the day as one of a record seven co-leaders after the opening round at the event.

Also carding 67s were Michael Allen, Jay Don Blake, Gary Hallberg, Tom Lehman, Mark O'Meara and Fred Funk.

The previous record for the number of co-leaders after the first round was five, set in the 1997 U.S. Senior Open at Olympia Fields outside Chicago.

Germany's Bernhard Langer was a further stroke back after a 68, along with Australian Peter Senior, American Rocco Mediate and Taiwan's Lu Chien-soon.

Perry, a 14-times winner on the regular PGA Tour, was delighted with his impressive start, having mixed five birdies with two bogeys to climb to the top of the leaderboard.

"I took care of the par-fives today and drove it nicely, kept it in the fairway, kept it in play," Perry told reporters. "Like I said yesterday, if I hit it in the fairway, I really like my chances on this golf course.

"I only missed a couple of fairways today so I was always attacking the pins. I could have shot a couple better, but I made two poor bogeys. I three-putted the par-three, five, and the other bogey I missed the green and didn't get up and down.

"You make five birdies in Open conditions, as tough as it was out there, I was very happy with that. That's about as good as I could do."

On Wednesday, Perry said in his pre-tournament news conference that he held a "a huge advantage" on the 6,711-yard, par-70 layout with his power game, mainly because of a new driver he put in his bag two months ago.

BOOMING DRIVES

He delivered in style on Thursday with several booming tee shots as he hit nine of 13 fairways and reached 14 of 18 greens in regulation.

"It automatically put length on me, and it put in accuracy," said Perry of his new driver. "It's really freed me up off the tee, so I'm very happy with that. That's why I'm playing more aggressive.

"If you're off target this week, you're going to shoot a really high score. The rough is brutal, and you're going to be in some spots where you're going to struggle to make double (bogey) from.

"I was lucky. I stayed away from all those areas, I was able to drive it beautifully. I hit my irons okay, putted okay. It's just a matter of executing and keeping that driver in play."

Tom Watson, an eight-times major champion on the PGA Tour who has added six more majors in the senior ranks, opened with a level-par 70 despite not being in form with his approach play.

"The one thing I did very well today was my lag putt," said the 63-year-old, who will captain the United States Ryder Cup team against holders Europe at Gleneagles, Scotland in 2014.

"I didn't hit the ball very well with my irons. Even though I was in the fairway most of the time, I didn't get it very close to the hole at all today.

"I did a real good job of lag putting and finishing the deal on the green. That was the positive."

Englishman Roger Chapman, who won last year's U.S. Senior Open by two strokes in Lake Orion, Michigan, launched his title defense with a 74.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

In brief remarks at a naturalization ceremony at his presidential library in Dallas, Bush avoided wading into the merits of specific legislation pending in Congress, but said it was important for lawmakers to recognize the benefits of immigration to the nation's future. While he didn't directly endorse a Senate-approved plan his comments suggested the need for Republicans to deal with immigration reform in a broad way.

"I don't intend to get involved in the politics or the specifics of policy, but I do hope there's a positive resolution to the debate," he said. "And I hope, during the debate, we keep a benevolent spirit in mind, and we understand the contributions immigrants make to our country."

The former president spoke as House Republicans consider how they should respond to comprehensive immigration reform approved last month by the Senate. Some Republicans have said the party needs to help fashion immigration reform following President Barack Obama's sweeping victory in the 2012 elections among Latino voters. But many House Republicans remain unconvinced that endorsing a pathway to citizenship for 11 million unauthorized immigrants would be the right approach.

Bush helped make inroads with the growing population of Hispanic voters during his presidency but Republicans have since lost ground and some worry it could irreparably harm their ability to win future elections.

The former president has largely avoided the political spotlight since leaving the White House in January 2009 but has advocated for immigration reform in the past. During his second term, he pushed for similar legislation that would have given immigrants living in the United States unlawfully a pathway to citizenship.

In his comments, Bush noted the importance of upholding current immigration laws. "We're also a nation of laws. And we must enforce our laws. America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time," he said.

"We can uphold our tradition of assimilating immigrants, and honoring our heritage of our nation built on the rule of law. But we have a problem. The laws governing the immigration system aren't working; the system is broken," Bush said.

It was unclear if Bush's public encouragement would help spur House Republicans into action or potentially undermine reform efforts. While his public approval ratings have improved, the 43rd president was deeply unpopular when he left the White House and many conservatives rebelled against his push for immigration reform.

Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., who served as a campaign and White House aide to Bush, said most House members agree with the points that Bush made "but now we have to get into the details of legislating and that's a different deal."

"I applaud him for not backing the Senate bill but look, we in the House represent our constituents who are very vocal on this issue, and I don't think it has any bearing one way or the other," Griffin said.

The latest attempt to address immigration reform cleared the Democratic-controlled Senate last month. It would spend $46 billion on border security, create new legal avenues for workers to come to the country, require employers to verify their workers' legal status and offer eventual citizenship for those here illegally.

But the vote in the House is likely to be much more difficult. Many conservative Republicans represent districts with few Hispanic voters and may be less-inclined to act on immigration. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said he will not bring the Senate bill to the House floor and has said no legislation will move without the support of a majority of his Republicans.

Boehner has said border security must come first and many Republicans in the House support a piecemeal, step-by-step approach, rather than a single big bill like the one the Senate passed.

Panel discussions on immigration were being held at the George W. Bush Presidential Center following the naturalization ceremony for 20 people from 12 countries. One of the panels centered on how immigrants help drive the Texas economy.

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Thomas reported from Washington.

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Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

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The Spanish Yamaha rider, who is second in this year's standings behind compatriot Dani Pedrosa of Honda after seven of 18 races, was running quickest in the afternoon session but lost control at turn 10 and landed heavily on his left shoulder.

"The Mallorcan was taken to the Clinica Mobile, where examinations indicated that the eight screws in his shoulder were in tact but that the titanium plate itself had been bent by the impact," organisers said on the MotoGP website (www.motogp.com).

The 26-year-old had the screws and plate inserted two weeks ago after sustaining a broken collarbone in practice for the Assen grand prix and despite the injury flew back to Netherlands after surgery in Barcelona and finished fifth.

After the setback in Germany, he now faces a race to be fit in time for the U.S. grand prix at Laguna Seca next weekend.

"I have decided to go home and recover after today's crash at Sachsenring," Lorenzo said on the Yamaha Factory Racing website (www.yamahamotogp.com).

"I prefer to focus on surgery to fix the plate that was unfortunately bent during the crash. I will try to recover and be back as soon as possible." (Writing by Iain Rogers in Madrid, editing by Justin Palmer)

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THE BILL

The proposed bill includes four restrictions on when, where and how a woman may obtain an abortion. The first provision requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. Another bans abortions after 20 weeks unless the health of the woman is in immediate danger. If a woman wants to induce an abortion by taking a pill, the state will require her to take the pills in the presence of a doctor at a certified abortion facility. Lastly, all abortions must take place in an ambulatory surgical center.

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WHY SUPPORTERS SAY THIS IS NECESSARY

Supporters argue they are increasing the standard of care for women. They say that admitting privileges is a signifier that the doctor is qualified. They also argue that after 20 weeks a fetus can feel pain, an assertion that is disputed by peer-reviewed scientific studies. They also insist that because the original instructions for abortion-inducing medications called for them to be taken in the presence of a doctor, it should be required by law. Supporters also insist that a woman is safer if the abortion takes place in a surgical center rather than in the current state-inspected abortion clinics not certified for surgery.

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WHY OPPONENTS ARE PROTESTING

Opponents say the bill is attempting to ban abortions by over-regulating them. Most private hospitals will not grant privileges to doctors who perform elective abortions, either for religious or political reasons, and the requirement will reduce the number of doctors available. They also cite medical evidence that a fetus only feels pain at 24 weeks, the stage at which abortions already are banned. Most doctors currently let women take abortion inducing drugs at home and have adapted the original instructions as they've gained experience and reduced complications. Lastly, abortions are not surgery, and opponents say the surgical center requirement will place an undue financial burden on clinics.

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THE EFFECT

According the Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas women undergo about 80,000 abortions a year. Currently, only five out of 42 abortions clinics in Texas qualify as ambulatory surgical centers, and there is some question whether the others can ever meet the infrastructure requirements such as hallway-width and ventilation standards. Most doctors do not have admitting privileges at a hospital, and it's unclear how many have such privileges at the remaining clinics in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. If more surgical centers do not offer abortions, the remaining five would need to perform on average 43.5 a day to meet current demand.

China itself made the comparison possible: for decades, a now-discontinued government policy provided free coal for heating, but only in the colder north. Researchers found significant differences in both particle pollution of the air and life expectancy in the two regions, and said the results could be used to extrapolate the effects of such pollution on lifespans elsewhere in the world.

The study by researchers from China, Israel and the United States was published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While previous studies have found that pollution affects human health, "the deeper and ultimately more important question is the impact on life expectancy," said one of the authors, Michael Greenstone, a professor of environmental economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"This study provides a unique setting to answer the life expectancy question because the (heating) policy dramatically alters pollution concentrations for people who appear to be of otherwise identical health," Greenstone said in an email. "Further, due to the low rates of migration in China in this period, we can know people's exposure over long time periods," he said.

The policy gave free coal for fuel boilers to heat homes and offices to cities north of the Huai River, which divides China into north and south. It was in effect for much of the 1950-1980 period of central planning, and, though discontinued after 1980, it has left a legacy in the north of heavy coal burning, which releases particulate pollutants into the air that can harm human health. Researchers found no other government policies that treated China's north differently from the south.

The researchers collected data for 90 cities, from 1981 to 2000, on the annual daily average concentration of total suspended particulates. In China, those are considered to be particles that are 100 micrometers or less in diameter, emitted from sources including power stations, construction sites and vehicles.

The researchers estimated the impact on life expectancies using mortality data from 1991-2000. They found that in the north, the concentration of particulates was 184 micrograms per cubic meter or 55 percent higher than in the south, and life expectancies were 5.5 years lower on average across all age ranges.

The researchers said the difference in life expectancies was almost entirely due to an increased incidence of deaths classified as cardiorespiratory those from causes that have previously been linked to air quality, including heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and respiratory illnesses.

Total suspended particulates include fine particulate matter called PM2.5 particles with diameters of no more than 2.5 micrometers. PM2.5 is of especially great health concern because it can penetrate deep into the lungs, but the researchers lacked the data to analyze those tiny particles separately.

The authors said their research can be used to estimate the effect of total suspended particulates on other countries and time periods. Their analysis suggests that every additional 100 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter in the atmosphere lowers life expectancy at birth by about three years.

The study also noted that there was a large difference in particulate matter between the north and south, but not in other forms of air pollution such as sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide.

Francesca Dominici, a professor of biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health who has researched the health effects of fine particulate matter in the U.S., said the study was "fascinating."

China's different treatment of north and south allowed researchers to get pollution data that would be impossible in a scientific setting.

Dominici said the quasi-experimental approach was a good approximation of a randomized experiment, "especially in this situation where a randomized experiment is not possible."

She said she wasn't surprised by the findings, given China's high levels of pollution.

"In the U.S. I think it's pretty much been accepted that even small changes in PM2.5, much, much, much smaller than what they are observing in China, are affecting life expectancy," said Dominici, who was not involved in the study.

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AP researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.

The triangle consists of three of the brightest stars in the sky, each the brightest star in its own constellation. The brightest is the bluish-white star Vega, in Lyra, the lyre. Next in brightness is yellow-whitein Aquila, the eagle. Finally there is white Deneb, in Cygnus, the swan.

From our viewpoint, Vega appears twice as bright as Altair and more than three times brighter than Deneb. But sometimes things are not always what they seem. We know that Vega clearly is more luminous compared to Altair, because its situated at a greater distance from us. Altair is 17 light years away, while Vega is just a little farther out at 25 light years away. []

The light you're seeing from Altair tonight started on its journey to Earth in 1996, and the light from Vega started on its way toward Earth back in 1988. But brilliant Vega actually pales in comparison with Deneb, one of the greatest supergiant stars known.

Deneb's distance measures 1,467 light-years from Earth with a luminosity computed to be more than 60,000 times that of the sun. Because its light takes nearly 15 centuries to reach us, Deneb merely appears as a fairly conspicuous but by no means particularly notable star.

See the Milky Way

With the moon arriving at new phase on Monday (July 8), and then waxing to just a thin crescent phase by week's end, there is no better time than now to observe the beautiful summer Milky Way.

Under a dark sky with a good pair of binoculars or ayou can now observe millions of sparkling little stars that make up this glowing, irregular belt of luminosity.

It appears to arch from the north-northeast to the south-southeast, with its brightest and most spectacular region running across the summer triangle and beyond toward the south-southeast horizon.

There appears to be a great black rift dividing it into two streams (called the "dark bifurcation"), beginning with Cygnus and extending down toward the south. Also in Cygnus is the black void known as the "northern coal stack." The coal stack and the rift are not holes in the , but rather are vast clouds of dust "floating" out in interstellar space which present a solid and impenetrable curtain between us and the more distant stars.

Star-crossed lovers

There have been many stories, myths and legends told about the Milky Way in many different cultures.

In a Japanese legend involving the galaxy, the starrepresented Orihime, the weaving princess, who produced brilliantly colored fabrics. Across the "heavenly river" (the Milky Way), Altair represented the cow herder Hikoboshi, who was also known as Kengyu.

After meeting each other, they received divine permission to marry, whereupon both abandoned their occupations. This angered the gods who consequently separate them and send them back to their original jobs on opposite sides of the heavenly river.

The couple, however, received permission from the gods to get together for one night each year. That special night is July 7 but only if the sky is clear.

As a result, the evening of July 7 has evolved into a young-peoples holiday in Japan called Tanabata, meaning "evening of the seventh." Prayers are offered for clear skies so that Orihime and Hikoboshi, the star-crossed lovers can be reunited.

Popular customs relating to the festival vary by region, but generally, girls wished for better sewing and craftsmanship, and boys wished for better handwriting by writing wishes on strips of paper. The date of Tanabata also varies by region, but the first festivities begin on July 7 of the Gregorian calendar.

The original Tanabata date was based on the Japanese lunisolar calendar, which is about a month behind the . As a result, some festivals are held on July 7, some are held on a few days around August 7, while the others are still held on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the traditional Japanese lunisolar calendar, which is usually in August in the Gregorian calendar.

This year, the Gregorian date of "the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Japanese lunisolar calendar" will fall on Aug. 13.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing picture of the night sky that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery send photos, comments and your name and location to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at .

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for "Natural History" magazine, the "Farmer's Almanac" and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow us on ,and . Original article on SPACE.com.

(Reuters) - Wall Street's brokerages would spend an average of $8 million each to implement a plan being considered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to impose higher ethical standards on brokers who give financial advice, according to estimates by the securities industry's largest trade group.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will present its figures to the SEC in a letter on Friday, the last day for interested parties to respond to a sweeping public request for information that could help the agency determine whether to impose a new standard, known as the so-called fiduciary rule.

SIFMA's findings and others could further delay the standard that has been long discussed and deferred by the SEC. At issue is a long-running controversy about the differences in responsibilities toward clients for securities brokers, who register with the self-regulatory Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, and registered investment advisers, or RIAs, another type of financial adviser overseen by the SEC.

Imposing traditional fiduciary standards for investment advisers on brokerages could mean big changes for the industry's business practices, such as possibly disclosing to investors when the "best" investment choices are available elsewhere.

Typically, brokers are compensated by sales commissions and must only meet a "suitability" standard by suggesting investments that are suitable for their clients. But RIAs, typically paid by clients, must be fiduciaries - they must put their clients' interests above their own at all times. The SEC is considering whether to streamline those standards through a new rule.

Developing and maintaining new compliance procedures to adhere to a fiduciary rule - everything from training staff to monitoring transactions - would run an average of $5 million per firm during the first year, Kevin Carroll, SIFMA associate general counsel, said in an interview with Reuters.

A potentially new broker disclosure brochure under consideration by the SEC would cost each brokerage, on average, about $3 million to develop and update during the initial year, he said.

SIFMA has faced criticism that it is pushing the SEC to adopt a fiduciary standard in name only, because it wants rules that would accommodate traditional brokerage business practices, such as selling brokerage-branded funds that can be more expensive than alternatives.

Some Washington insiders are skeptical that the SEC will ever develop a fiduciary rule for brokers, given intense lobbying by the industry. On Tuesday, for example, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (wrote in a letter to the SEC that imposing a fiduciary standard on brokers would make their services pricier for middle class investors. NAIFA represents insurance agents who also sell securities.

The group developed the figures based on estimates it collected from 12 large firms and six regional firms. While the identities of those firms are unclear, SIFMA's membership includes the largest brokerages, such as Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit.

The $8 million estimate represents a fraction of each firm's annual budget.

At least one fiduciary advocate is skeptical of SIMFA's figures. A $3 million price tag for a brochure of disclosures is "questionable on its face," said Knut Rostad, president of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, a group that promotes imposing a traditional fiduciary standard on brokerages.

The Investment Adviser Association, which supports imposing a traditional fiduciary standard on brokers who give investment advice, is concerned about how the agency's process for reviewing the varying ethical standards may affect SEC-registered advisers. The discussion in the SEC's data request "appears to favor imposing the broker-dealer regulatory regime on investment advisers," wrote David Tittsworth, the group's executive director.

A spokesman for the Financial Planning Coalition, a trade group that also supports imposing a traditional fiduciary standard on brokers who give investment advice, said it will file a letter with the SEC on Friday. He declined to comment on SIFMA's remarks.

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Linda Stern and Dan Grebler)

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1. TRY AS YOU MIGHT: Chris Froome single-handedly quashed several attempts by rivals to wrest the overall race lead from him as the Tour left the Pyrenees and headed into the first and widely desired rest day of the three-week race. With his Sky teammates worn out after helping him capture the yellow jersey a day earlier, the 28-year-old Briton found himself alone against his top rivals for much of Sunday's Stage 9 ride up and down five mountain passes. A relieved Froome said he understood his teammates might've been tired, and that he was happy that the other contenders like two-time Tour champion Alberto Contador and fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde didn't press the pace more.

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2. FAMILY TIES: Daniel Martin became the fifth Irish rider to win a Tour stage in the 100-year history of the race on Sunday, and the first since ... his own uncle. Stephen Roche became the only Irishman in 1987 to win the Tour. He collected three stage wins in his career, the last in 1992. "It's staying in the family, eh?" quipped a silver-haired Roche at the finish of the 168.5- kilometer (105-mile) ride from Saint-Girons to Bagneres-de-Bigorre. His sister is the mother of Martin, who was born in Birmingham, England. The proud uncle whose son Nicolas Roche is riding in the Tour for Saxo Bank told French TV that Martin, the 26-year-old Garmin-Sharp rider, is an under-recognized talent who could one day finish on the Tour podium. "It's wonderful that Daniel won here ... He's a good guy, and he deserves it because he's really worked hard to get there," Roche said.

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3. HOLLANDE'S HOPES: What Tour de France would be complete without a visit from the French president? Francois Hollande dropped in on Sunday, making good on what's become nearly a rite of passage for the head of state in recent years. Jacques Chirac visited; so did Hollande's immediate predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy a cycling buff and longtime admirer of Lance Armstrong. Despite the heat and relaxing weekend feel, Hollande wore a suit as he rode in a car with Tour chief Christian Prudhomme during Stage 9. He then expressed hopes in an interview with French TV that cycling has turned the corner on doping. Cycling has "paid a heavy price" in the past, Hollande said, adding "I want to believe the Tour is clean."

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4. KEEPING COOL: Cyclists' bodies generate lots of heat when they ride and it's even worse during mountainous stages and under scorching days like Sunday, when temperatures topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 F). So keeping cool is crucial. Teams have different tricks. Andreas Goesele, team doctor for RadioShack Leopard Trek, gives his riders black wristbands or necklaces drenched in "Liquid Ice," which evaporates over time and helps keep the body temperature down and improves energy production. The Omega Pharma-QuickStep squad has rolled out an inflatable pool that can be filled with chilled water in a team van, so riders can cool down right after the finish. Before the team time-trial in Stage 4, some riders donned tops that look like space-age feathered vests but cold. And some teams cool down the old fashioned way, too at Garmin-Sharp, managers dunk towels in cases of chilled water and then wrap up their riders.

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5. BACK ON THE BIKES: After hours of racing, some Tour riders finish the long, hot stages by getting right back on their bikes. BMC rider Amael Moinard of France said his "cool-down" on a stationary bike lasts 5 to 10 minutes and aims to eliminate toxins from the body. "At the finish, it's good to churn the legs a bit just to clear out the system and help recuperate you just have to make sure you're in the shade!"

Scientists used new techniques and computing to take DNA from a 5-inch fossil fragment most of which was contaminated with more modern bacteria and get a good genetic picture of an ancestral horse. The work was published Wednesday in the journal Nature and discussed at a science conference in Helsinki.

The research gives a better insight into the evolution of one of the most studied mammals. Perhaps more importantly, it opens up new possibilities for mapping the genetic blueprints of all sorts of ancient animals from early human ancestors to mastodons to mammoths to bison, said study lead authors Ludovic Orlando and Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen.

This "is breaking the time barrier," Willerslev said.

The previous oldest animal fossil genetically mapped had been an ancient relative of Neanderthals called the Denisovans, from about 75,000 years ago, found in a Siberian cave.

The ancient horse was probably about the size of current Arabian horses, the researchers said. It didn't have the same genes for large muscles that make today's breeds good for racing, and it was larger than researchers once thought, Orlando and Willerslev said.

The new mapping techniques, which involve all sorts of technical changes, could be used not just with fossils from frozen areas like Canada's Yukon and Russia's Siberia, but also from more temperate climates, and may eventually allow researchers to map animal genomes from 1 million years ago, Orlando said.

Ross MacPhee, curator of mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, who wasn't part of the research, said the accomplishment suggests "there's no reason in substance why we couldn't go back further."

"I think it's cool," said another outside expert, Edward Rubin, who heads the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute and has deciphered Neanderthal and cave bear DNA.

"We can always keep our fingers crossed that (DNA from) an ancient hominid will be found in one of those environments that have been cold," perhaps even the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans, he said.

Orlando and Willerslev said it doesn't have to be that cold, but much of the most ancient human development was in Africa where the hotter climate makes DNA disintegrate faster. Still, there were enough hominids in temperate climates to give hope for older genome sequencing of some of our ancestors, they said.

There was a lot of junk in the Yukon fossil that wasn't horse but bacteria, Orlando said. He said for every 200 DNA molecules they sequenced, only one was from the horse.

The research estimated that the evolutionary tree split that led to horses on one branch and donkeys on the other happened about 4 million years ago.

The analysis also found new evidence that an endangered animal called the Przewalski's horse, found in Mongolia and China, is the last surviving wild horse. It is genetically distinct from domestic horses.

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Ritter reported from New York.

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Online:

Journal Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature

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Seth Borenstein can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is likely to begin shrinking the size of its debt purchase program, intended to prop up economic growth and support the labor market, by September of this year, according to the majority of economists at large Wall Street firms.

Economists at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan specifically cited the government's announcement earlier on Friday of stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs growth for June as a factor in bringing forward their expected timing of the Fed slowing.

Goldman and J.P. Morgan are two of 21 U.S. primary dealers - the large financial firms that do business directly with the Fed - that were polled by Reuters on Friday.

Of 17 dealers who answered a question on the expected timing of a reduction in purchases, 11 called for September, while three said October, two said December and one said it would happen in the first quarter of 2014.

In a similar poll conducted June 19, seven of 17 dealers called for a slowing in September. One dealer in the previous poll had called for the slowing this month, while three said October, one said November while four said December, with one still forecasting the first quarter of 2014.

Friday's poll was conducted after the government said U.S. employers added 195,000 new jobs to their payrolls last month, and revised its count for April and May to show 70,000 more jobs created than previously reported. Economists had been looking for 165,000 new jobs in June.

"With solid job gains through the first half of the year, the recovery appears to be overcoming the worst of the fiscal headwinds now at peak force. Fed officials are likely to keep tentative plans to start scaling back (quantitative easing), probably in September, barring a major upset," said Peter D'Antonio, economist at Citigroup in New York.

The Fed is currently buying $85 billion per month of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, and the median of forecasts from 13 dealers in Friday's poll was for buying to initially be scaled back by $20 billion per month. Forecasts ranged from a reduction of $10 billion per month to $28 billion per month.

The median forecast for an initial reduction of $20 billion per month was unchanged from the June 19 poll.

Of 16 primary dealers who answered a question on the timing of the end of the latest bond purchase program, 14 said it would happen on or before the middle of 2014, while two said September 2014. Those results were little changed from the June 19 poll.

Many analysts had been reeling in their forecasts for the timing of the beginning of the end of Fed purchases, after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said at a press conference on June 19 the economy is expanding strongly enough for the central bank to start slowing the pace of its bond-buying stimulus later this year.

Friday's payrolls data added to sentiment that the Fed could slow purchases sooner than originally expected.

"Coming into today, our call for a December first taper was already probably a little underwater, and after today's report we are moving to a call for a first reduction in asset purchases at the September (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting," J.P. Morgan economist Michael Feroli said in a note to clients.

The median of forecasts from 13 dealers called for the latest round of quantitative easing, known as QE3, to total $1.3 trillion of purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. That was up marginally from a median of $1.255 trillion from 12 dealers polled June 19.

Economists at 13 of 14 dealers forecast the Fed will increase interest rates from the current ultra-low level near zero in 2015, while one said it would happen in 2016.

(Additional reporting by Alison Griswold, Pam Niimi and Luciana Lopez; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)