MUMBAI: Veteran news anchor Wolf Blitzer will convene teams of top CNN correspondents and experts on the news of the moment in The Situation Room in the US.

The programme will blend traditional newsgathering with up-to-the-second information from online sources on homeland security, politics as well as US and world affairs. The Situation Room will replace Inside Politics, Crossfire and Wolf Blitzer Reports. The programme debuts next month.

CNN US president Jon Klein said, “The Situation Room becomes a showcase for CNN’s unparalleled, world-wide newsgathering operations. The block marks the most active part of the news day, when stories start to gel and begin stacking up like planes over O’Hare Airport. There will be no better place to monitor developments than in The Situation Room, whose studio has been expressly designed to incorporate traditional reporting methods with the most innovative online resources, such as blogs, Web sites and podcasts.”

The programme draws together CNN’s extensive reporting and analysis resources including its renowned political and polling units, D.C. beats, national and global newsgathering bureaus.

The programme will gather dozens of experts, analysts and opinion leaders, establishing a CNN Security Council with expertise spanning topics from personal security to the economy to the war on terrorism. Regular contributors will include former Crossfire hosts Paul Begala, James Carville and Robert Novak; political analysts Victoria Clarke, Jeff Greenfield, Bill Schneider and Carlos Watson.Viewers will also hear from security analysts such as former Defense Secretary William Cohen, Richard Falkenrath, a former terrorism advisor to President George W. Bush, and former CIA acting director John McLaughlin.