In a blow to the Republican-led effort to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, a group of prominent business leaders said Wednesday they had voted to oppose the recall.

The California Business Roundtable, a group of about 60 chief executives, took the unanimous vote at a regularly scheduled board meeting Tuesday, said the group's president, Bill Hauck.

Hauck said the group was releasing a statement reading in part: "California needs its principal public officials to be focused fundamentally on restoring vitality to the economy and stability of the state's budget and financial position ...

"We all should devote our energies to efforts that will positively benefit our citizens rather than activities that will have no positive productive results and bypass the accepted process for selecting our state leadership. For these reasons we are opposed to placing the recall measure on the ballot.'

The Business Roundtable includes companies that regularly donate to Republican causes, including The Irvine Co. and Charles Schwab Corp. Other members include Bank of America, Edison International, Gap Inc. and the Boeing Co.

The group does not endorse candidates. It has been critical of Davis for signing "job-killing' legislation, which it says has hurt the state's business climate.

"To have someone like Bill and a group like the Business Roundtable, which is not a group that has necessarily agreed with Gray Davis on a lot of business-related issues, to make that strong a statement, is significant,' said Carroll Wills, spokesman for Taxpayers Against the Recall, a group of Davis allies that formed last week to fight the recall.

Dave Gilliard, director of Rescue California, the most prominent of the pro-recall groups, said the Business Roundtable's vote would have no effect on the recall drive.

"Groups like this are the last to wake up to these things,' Gilliard said. "I can't remember one of the special interests that supported Proposition 13 either, and this is a very similar movement. It's something that isn't from the top down, it's from the bottom up.'

Recall proponents have until Sept. 2 to collect 897,158 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. They claim to have collected more than 400,000 so far.