Abuja — Fresh from his two-week vacation, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday resumed duties at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

And as he resumed work, it seemed the 2009 Appropria-tion Bill, which is still before the National Assembly, was paramount on his mind: he held his first meeting with a team of ministers who briefed him on the 2009 budget.

The team led by Minister of Finance Mansur Muhtar in a brief chat with State House Correspondents said the meeting with the President centred mainly on the 2009 appropriation and the performance of the economy.

Muhtar said the 2009 budget needed to be finalised as soon as possible, adding that President Yar'Adua was focusing his mind on its implementation.

Among those who briefed the President at the meeting were the Minister of State for Finance Remi Babalola, Central Bank Governor Chukwuma Soludo and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Steve Oronsaye.

Others were the Accoun-tant-General of the Federa-tion, Ibrahim Dankwabo, Director-General of the Bud-get Office, Bright Okongwu, Director-General of Bureau for Public Procurement, Emeka Eze and Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Tanimu Yakubu.

The Senate and House of Representatives were said to be originally working on a plan to pass the 2009 budget before the end of last year so that implementation of the document could begin at the beginning of this year.

But while the Senate had on December 17, 2008 approved N3.04 trillion as the 2009 appropriation, the House only passed its own version of the budget last month and its N3.087 trillion final figure was higher than what the Senate passed by N83 billion.

The separate figures mean both Senate and House will need to harmonise their different versions of the budget.

The two houses have raised their members of the harmonisation committee but the committee is yet to conclude work.

As the President was about to begin his vacation two weeks ago, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, had said in a statement that all duties requiring the attention of President Yar'Adua would be attended to by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan while the President was on vacation.

But the controversy was about the propriety or otherwise of the President proceeding on his vacation and Jonathan acting for him without transmitting a written declaration to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House in line with the provision of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution.