If the conflict drags on, meager stockpiles could be exhausted.

"These conflicts often drag on forever and, if litigated, can become an enormous expense to the victims."

But the longer the conflict drags on, the more these leaders are finding their credibility called into question.

The conflict, known as the Hundred Years War, dragged on for decades.

The conflict has already dragged on for five years; thousands have died.

The conflict dragged on so long that several of the guerrilla commanders who signed the pact are now gray-haired men.

The conflict dragged on for the next months, with all Hungarian attempts to seize the mountain stronghold being overturned.

The conflict dragged on and settled into a standoff, although the Soviet force, estimated at first at 30,000, grew to number 120,000.

If the conflict drags on, and more producers abandon their crops, it could be worse.

Army planners were said to have estimated that the bitter conflict consuming the two peoples for nearly a year could drag on until 2006.