51.   Ms. Bellamy said that the Taliban understood the seriousness of the U.N. position and that the Taliban and the United Nations were choosing negotiating teams to resolve outstanding issues.

52.   Negotiating teams for Andersen and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu continued meeting on Monday in Manhattan, reviewing possible terms for a deal that would result in the two firms combining.

53.   No other country has created such a position on its negotiating team.

54.   Officials on both sides said the United States was seeking to reduce the negotiating teams to essential participants to prevent time-consuming statements.

55.   Only then, four weeks into the five-week U.N. final conference, were cabinet debates resolved and instructions issued to the American negotiating team.

56.   Osman said the Pacifica negotiating team, which includes executive director Lynn Chadwick, had nothing in writing to present Thursday at the mediation session.

57.   Peter Tirri, the president of the union, said he had worked with five different negotiating teams, the last one put in place just a month ago.

58.   Peres and Arafat were joined in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba by the Palestinian mayor of Hebron and the heads of the negotiating teams.

59.   Perhaps as a testament to their resolve, the players installed Legler on their negotiating team Friday.

60.   Qureia, a longtime confidant to Arafat and a member of the Palestinian negotiating team, said Arafat is ready to sit down face-to-face with Sharon to begin negotiations.