DETROIT/WILMINGTON (Michigan/ Delaware) • After a painstaking recount, Georgia officials confirmed that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the battleground state on Nov 3, further narrowing Mr Trump's effort to overturn the election results.

The result of the six-day hand recount of the state's five million ballots had been widely expected, despite allegations from Mr Trump and his allies that Georgia's vote tallies were suspect because of widespread fraud.

Amid a series of losses in court, Mr Trump's re-election campaign has shifted to a new strategy of persuading Republican state legislators in crucial states to ignore the election results and intervene on Mr Trump's behalf, according to three people familiar with the plan.

The campaign has filed multiple lawsuits to try to challenge the results in battleground states that Mr Biden won, as election officials across the country have affirmed that there is no evidence of major irregularities.

Judges in three states delivered new legal setbacks to the campaign on Thursday, rejecting claims of improper vote counting.

Georgia's audit, launched after unofficial results showed Mr Biden leading Mr Trump by about 14,000 votes cast, ended with Mr Biden winning by 12,284, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office.

Mr Trump and his allies - including Georgia's Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who both face run-off elections next January - have accused fellow Republican Mr Raffensperger without evidence of overseeing a flawed election, an allegation that Mr Raffensperger has angrily disputed.

In remarks yesterday, Mr Raffensperger, who called himself a proud Trump supporter, said: "Like other Republicans, I'm disappointed our candidate didn't win Georgia's electoral votes."

He added: "I live by the motto that numbers don't lie. As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct."

While legal experts see Mr Trump's last-gasp effort as unlikely to succeed, they say the strategy represents an unprecedented assault on the country's democratic institutions by a sitting president.

REUTERS