31.   But a midyear election prompted government leaders to take several steps toward improvement, at least in name.

32.   But European government leaders, sensitive to widespread popular suspicion of chemicals, argued that the ban was well within their rights to protect consumers.

33.   But at the same time, government leaders acknowledge that they have a moral debt to the church, or at least its progressive wing.

34.   But government leaders are more worried about how to maintain the momentum for development once the Olympics leave town.

35.   But Chinese government leaders and economists hope the normalization of trade with the United States will help close inefficient state enterprises.

36.   But in Europe, relatively little consolidation has happened and now government leaders appear to believe judgment day is near.

37.   But government leaders seem insistent that this phase must wait until after the newly elected Indonesian Parliament assembles in November and chooses a president.

38.   But in their initial handling of the anthrax crisis, government leaders did almost everything wrong, according to psychologists and other researchers.

39.   But it was highly unusual for a high government leader to suggest, as Gingrich did Thursday, that default on government payments was not beyond the pale.

40.   But journalists and government leaders largely ignored past meetings of his group, he said.