"You kill my dog, I kill your cat" is how Mr. Singh described India's history of tit-for-tat violence.

In the past, when the tit-for-tat violence reached a certain intensity, the United States would step in.

The tit-for-tat violence had temporarily ceased.

A day after President Bush sketched a long-term vision for peace here, the accumulating tally of tit-for-tat violence continued to impede his administration's attempts to carry it out.

Over the past year the impasse has thickened, and the tit-for-tat violence has increased.

The cycle of tit-for-tat sectarian violence has pushed the death toll in the last week well beyond 100, making Nigeria the hardest-hit country so far in the caricature controversy.

The threat is greatest for Shkurte's sons Pashk, 17, and Pepa, 15, who, as the eldest males, are most eligible for any tit-for-tat violence.

They frequently turn on one another in tit-for-tat violence.

But the tit-for-tat violence saps its morale and chips away at the coalition's sense of purpose.

More than 200 people are believed to have died in the tit-for-tat violence in January alone, United Nations officials say.