11.   But the islands have become invested with so much symbolic importance to both sides that a compromise is difficult to imagine, the diplomats said.

12.   But the French government, under domestic pressure to bring its troops home, plans to withdraw its peacekeepers by Monday, French diplomats said on Tuesday.

13.   Colonial powers sometimes stick around and make trouble for a long time, say diplomats from the Comoro Islands.

14.   Contingency planning intensified at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Allied diplomats said, as special U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke met with Albanian leaders in Kosovo.

15.   France, which last week appeared ready to support the resolution, now seems to be slipping back toward abstention, diplomats said.

16.   Francois sent his children to the Dominican Republic on Thursday, apparently fearing for their safety, diplomats said.

17.   Guerrilla commanders said it was turned back north of Pristina, said the diplomat, who spoke with them by phone.

18.   He said American diplomats and aid experts abroad would be asked to report on how coordination is working.

19.   In his televised speech, the diplomat said, the president should have spoken like a father striving to unite squabbling family members.

20.   In proceeding with both routes in the first stage, the consortium bowed to politics, not economics, diplomats said.