He has in many ways been an indispensable figure in India's recent transitions.

He said Secretary Powell had erred in assuming that Mr. Arafat was an indispensable figure in future peace talks.

Gilpatric made himself an "indispensable" figure in the Kennedy administration, wrote longtime JFK aide Ted Sorensen.

In Hurd's phrase, "By the imperceptible process characteristic of British politics he found himself month by month, without any particular manoeuvre on his part, becoming an indispensable figure in the government."

This ensemble is an indispensable figure on the new-music scene in New York, but its programs are not always chosen with sufficient discrimination, and the latest installment had more than its share of dreariness.

Yet the image of Mr. Sharon, so recently considered the indispensable figure in Israeli politics, has now faded from the advertisements and even the television programs.

But in just a few months, he has become a familiar and indispensable figure to the ambassadors, business executives, legislators, lobbyists, mayors and other supplicants who regularly come knocking on his door.

Asked by one member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations whether Mr. Arafat's position was in jeopardy, Mr. Christopher said: "He is the indispensable figure.

The Secretary General is now recognized as an indispensable figure in the maintenance of peace and the resolution of conflict.

From his early 20's, Capek was an indispensable figure in Czech literature and journalism.