RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia's redrawn congressional map has set off a fiery dispute over black voting strength that is expected to influence how other states - especially those in the South - handle race during redistricting.

Virginia Democrats say the GOP - which won control of the state in the 1990s - ``packed'' minority voters into a black district to make adjoining districts whiter and more Republican, thereby violating federal law protecting black voting rights.

The reapportionment plan was signed last week by Gov. Jim Gilmore. It now goes to the Justice Department. Redistricting plans in nine Southern and Southwestern states and parts of seven others are subject to Justice Department approval because of their history of discrimination.

Black lawmakers have already promised a court challenge.

``This is the first congressional redistricting plan that really gets into the teeth of the Voting Rights Act,'' said Tim Storey, who specializes in redistricting for the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver.

``Virginia is so early out of the gate on this that there's not yet enough of a precedent to guide partisans on either side, so all the other states will watch this very carefully. It's the first test of the 2001 round of redistricting.''

Virginia and New Jersey are the only states holding legislative and gubernatorial elections this fall, so they are the first to wade into the issue of race-based redistricting. There are no congressional elections until next year.

In New Jersey, an independent commission took the opposite approach from Virginia in reworking state legislative boundaries: Three districts with large black populations were ``unpacked,'' leaving four new districts with sufficient minority influence to elect black candidates. The plan was upheld by a panel of three federal judges.

In Virginia's case, the Justice Department must determine whether the racial makeup of the 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act by diluting black political clout.

Under the GOP plan, the 3rd District would retain a black majority of about 57 percent. Democrat Robert Scott, the only black member of Virginia's congressional delegation, currently holds the seat.

The furor is largely over the 4th District, which lost heavily black neighborhoods to the 3rd District. Its black population fell from 39 percent to 34 percent and its white population went from 57 percent to 63 percent.

The district had been in Democratic hands for years until the March death of Rep. Norman Sisisky. Republican J. Randy Forbes won the seat in a close special election in June, defeating Democrat Louise Lucas, who is black.

Black voters don't mask their disdain for the plan.

``It feels like resegregation,'' said Vivian Curry, a retired government accountant at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. ``It's like they're telling me that I can only have influence in this one district to make Bobby Scott the token representative for all Virginia's African-Americans.''

Scott himself criticized the redrawn lines, though they all but assure his re-election.

``It appears that the 4th was designed in such a way that it virtually eliminates the opportunity for minority voters to elect the candidate of their choice,'' Scott said.

The issue became so racially charged earlier this month that a House of Delegates committee meeting on redistricting turned into an exchange of insults, with black activist Roy Perry-Bey calling panel members segregationists.

``Virginia now sits on the spark of a race riot so you need to carefully think about what we are doing,'' he said. The meeting was recessed to let tempers cool.

The Voting Rights Act has long been interpreted as a mandate to create districts tailored to elect blacks. The result in Georgia, Louisiana and elsewhere has been districts in which far-flung black neighborhoods are sometimes stitched together by corridors no wider than a highway.

In rejecting such maps over the past decade, courts ruled that packing districts solely on the basis of race is impermissible. However, creating a mostly black or mostly white district to protect political gains does not necessarily mean the courts will get involved.

Kevin Hill, a political science professor at Florida International University, said Virginia Republicans could defend their redistricting plan by saying they were making the 4th District more conservative to protect Forbes or were providing more blacks to the 3rd District to protect Scott.

``If you can prove they were sucking Democrats out of the old Sisisky district to make it harder for a black to win, then that may fall under the Voting Rights Act,'' he said.