President Bush declared on Wednesday that the United States will only serve as a "catalyst" to promote "direct negotiations" between the parties.

So, in practice, should it promote negotiations or back the Algerian Government's campaign to crush the fundamentalists?

If genuine, it represents the best chance in almost a year to halt the violence and promote productive negotiations on Northern Ireland's future.

But she declined to specify what, if anything, the United States would do to promote such negotiations.

January 31 The bombing of the North is resumed after failure of the "peace offensive" that was designed to promote negotiations.

As evidence of this new role, Japan took an active part in promoting negotiations to resolve the Cambodian conflict.

He said that the group had scaled down its military operations since 1986 to promote negotiations.

The Union is prepared to participate in promoting negotiations both financially and politically.

But the 12-nation community also agreed to dispatch three foreign ministers to Yugoslavia this weekend to help promote negotiations among the parties to the conflict.

What about their release prompted speculation that Pretoria wanted the cooperation of the freed men in promoting negotiations with the country's black majority?