  We consider a simple massive extension of the Landau-DeWitt gauge for SU($N$)
Yang-Mills theory. We compute the corresponding one-loop effective potential
for a temporal background gluon field at finite temperature. At this order the
background field is simply related to the Polyakov loop, the order parameter of
the deconfinement transition. Our perturbative calculation correctly describes
a quark confining phase at low temperature and a phase transition of second
order for $N=2$ and weakly first order for $N=3$. Our estimates for the
transition temperatures are in qualitative agreement with values from lattice
simulations or from other continuum approaches. Finally, we discuss the
effective gluon mass parameter in relation to the Gribov ambiguities of the
Landau-DeWitt gauge.
