51.   Selig denied making a pledge.

52.   Sharon also promises to pursue a peace deal, though that pledge has been made in vague terms.

53.   Since both Vajpayee and Sharif sit atop shaky governing coalitions, it took political courage for them to make their pledges.

54.   That pretty much leaves inertia, superstition and mindless selfishness as the primary excuses for not making the pledge.

55.   That pronouncement capped a week in which Clinton, Lott and House Speaker Newt Gingrich all made public pledges of cooperation.

56.   Telephone and media companies have made similar pledges.

57.   That time-consuming effort made the pledge on the covert-action records impossible to keep, the agency says.

58.   The association later made that pledge.

59.   The companies are set to make their pledges at LinuxWorld, a gathering of Linux software developers in San Jose, Calif.

60.   The expectation under the Clinton administration was that the United States and the other rich countries would help pay, but no concrete pledges were ever made.