1.   The republics were poor, in a state of virtual economic catastrophe.

2.   We hope that the republics will be willing to ratify the treaty and implement its terms.

3.   We hope that the republics will be willing to ratify the treaty.

4.   The republic is a melting pot of different nationalities.

5.   The republics were to decide for themselves policy in such key areas as private property and land ownership.

6.   Under the new law the Czech and Slovak republics would be able to issue news-gathering and broadcasting licences to private individuals with immediate effect.

7.   In the seventeenth century the new Dutch republic was the only important power to make extensive use of this method of representation.

8.   A war in Montenegro could be especially bloody, analysts and Montenegrin officials warn, since the republic is home to both Serb loyalists and Montenegrin nationalists.

9.   After years of bloody civil war following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the republic is in free fall.

10.   But at the same time, he reiterated that the breakaway republic was part of Russia.