But the crucial backing came from Mr. D'Amato, who was a co-sponsor of the bill and as chairman can control amendments to it.

This was hardly surprising, since Pakistan gave crucial backing to the Taliban in its rise to power after 1994.

"Disney provided crucial financial, moral and public backing when a lot of people questioned the wisdom of the whole thing," Mr. Wenner said in an interview.

A proposal to hold a joint session of Congress in New York City picked up crucial backing today when the House speaker, Dennis J. Hastert, announced his support.

There was virtually no mention of Mr. Sadr, who has provided crucial political backing for Mr. Maliki, in any of the meeting's major speeches.

Some lawmakers had said that Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., could have lent crucial backing to the legislation through influence on lawmakers representing Redmond and the suburbs outside Seattle.

Rees lost the crucial backing of the dominant right faction of the Labor Party.

He won the crucial backing of the Bronx Republican leader, State Senator Guy J. Velella, a lawyer whose firm has long won lucrative appointments from Bronx judges.

Williams gave crucial initial backing to the museum.

The original architects of the Depression-era program enlisted the crucial backing of the better-off by selling it as a broad-based insurance program rather than a poor people's stipend.