WASHINGTON — Barack Obama's appointed successor declared this morning he's qualified to take a seat in the Senate and said he'll go to Capitol Hill to do just that.

"I'm presenting myself as the legally appointed senator from the state of Illinois. It is my hope and prayer that they recognize that the appointment is legal," Roland Burris said in a nationally broadcast interview just hours before the Senate convenes with the start of the 111th Congress.

Burris dismissed the Senate Democratic leadership's position that he cannot be seated because he was appointed by a governor accused in a criminal complaint of trying to benefit financially from his authority to fill the seat that Obama vacated after winning the presidential election.

"As I read the U.S. Constitution," he said on CBS's "The Early Show," it says the "governor shall fill a vacancy, and as a former attorney general of my state, I have no knowledge of where a secretary of state has veto power over a governor carrying out his constitutional duties."

Burris has found little support among fellow Democrats.

The Senate was scheduled to convene at noon today with its newest members.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday that Burris would not be permitted to take his seat because Burris "has not been certified by the state of Illinois," a reference to incomplete paperwork that only touches on the dispute. Senate Democrats maintain that Burris' appointment is tainted because of the charges against Blagojevich.

By The Associated Press