31.   Morrison Knudsen Corp. said it started preliminary negotiations with its creditors and proposed exchanging its existing secured debt for equity in the company.

32.   Monday is the day on which Netanyahu and Arafat agreed two months ago to start negotiations on a final peace settlement, but no such talks are scheduled.

33.   NATO officials said that the allies would give Solana a detailed mandate early in the New Year and ask him to start negotiations with Moscow then.

34.   Powell is not expected to bring any fresh Kashmir initiatives other than urging the two nuclear-armed adversaries to stop trading artillery rounds and start serious negotiations.

35.   Republican senators plan to start closed-door negotiations in the week ahead over a welfare-funding dispute that has delayed Senate action on reforming the system for a month.

36.   Sharon also made clear on Sunday that he did not intend to lessen the fighting while negotiations got started for a cease-fire.

37.   Shortly thereafter, Israel and the Palestinians are required by the agreement to start negotiations on a final peace settlement.

38.   Six other wildly diverse countries are about to start negotiations, a process likely to last at least a decade.

39.   Solidarity and Freedom Union started negotiations after the vote about the shape of the coalition government they plan to form.

40.   Stock and bond prices, which had rallied yesterday on news of the fresh talks, plunged after the new effort to start negotiations fell apart amid partisan rancor.