31.   Alioto said Hearst should be required to sell its half of the joint operating agreement as part of any sale of the Examiner.

32.   Budget analysts see the chief function of the agreement as political, not economic, giving Clinton and Republicans something to brag about.

33.   But administration officials hailed the European agreement as an important step forward for the American approach of keeping new government regulation and taxation to a minimum in cyberspace.

34.   But advocates also worry that China will use the agreement as window dressing.

35.   But arms control experts have attacked the agreement as rewarding an untrustworthy dictator and setting worrisome precedents for other would-be nuclear powers.

36.   Bush has denigrated formal arms control agreements as relics of the Cold War, a position he reiterated Tuesday.

37.   But even the severest critics conceded that these shortcomings were not disqualifying given the importance of the agreement as a whole.

38.   But it was Lazio who viewed the agreement as a much-needed tonic for his campaign, showing up on national television Sunday morning to boast of it.

39.   But some county officials defended the confidential agreement as standard procedure.

40.   But there is no agreement as to how precisely that should be done or how long the United States should be prepared to wait for action.