He was trained to maneuver tanks, but he spends much of his time parked on carpets, chatting with sheiks, trying to ease suspicions one glass of tea at a time.

To ease suspicions, Mr. De Graff recruited Ms. Nesfield, who likened her role as the former president of the congregation to that of an ombudsman.

This promise, along with whatever message she takes home from her meeting with Mr. Baker on Friday, may be enough to ease suspicions on the Lithuanian side.

Legal ethicists say such open proceedings would ease public suspicions that lawyers protect one another at clients' expense.

Officials insist there was no fix, but called for the embarrassing re-draw to ease suspicions.

Alan D. Romberg, a senior associate specializing in East Asia at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, said the process was creating "habits of consultation" that could ease suspicions in the region.

In this way, membership in the same alliance has eased old suspicions.

At a dramatic pace that would have been unthinkable only a year ago, the Vatican and the Eastern bloc have begun to forge fundamental changes in their relationship, easing mutual suspicions and lowering diplomatic barriers that had been intact for decades.

To that end, the White House has gone out of its way to try to ease Russian suspicions about the West, favoring a go-slow approach on expanding NATO.

Constantine also worked closely with trade unions in an attempt to ease the fears and suspicions of white workers.