11.   Sizable American diplomatic and technical resources are at play, too, in the effort to reach the oil in harsh climates and a politically unstable region.

12.   Such a dissolution of the Afghan state would make an already unstable region even more volatile.

13.   The long-term goal of that effort must be creation of a structure that sustains itself over time, that restores some sense of stability to an inherently unstable region.

14.   The trip is a way of encouraging positive developments in a small nation that sits in an unstable region of Europe.

15.   Peres said the economic summit in Amman is an example of business helping reshape the historically unstable region.

16.   Peres said the economic summit in Amman, which opened Sunday, is an example of business helping reshape the historically unstable region.

17.   President Boris Yeltsin received a briefing from Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo on the unstable region, which has become even more volatile in recent weeks.

18.   Russia and the other ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia fear strikes on Afghanistan could rock the unstable Muslim region and prompt a refugee exodus.

19.   Russia blockaded Abkhazia in December in a crackdown on security in the unstable Caucasus region in the wake of the bloody war in Chechnya.

20.   Robert Pelletreau, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said in Washington on Tuesday that Iran has ambitions to dominate the unstable Gulf region.