1.   But conservative House Republicans insisted on the abortion provision.

2.   But the House bill also included a number of sticking points, including the abortion provision, which the Senate Appropriations Committee stripped from its bill.

3.   Congressional aides said they knew of no negotiations on Tuesday over the abortion provision that is proving to be the final hurdle to passage of the overall bill.

4.   He said he strenuously objected to an abortion provision inserted on Wednesday by the Finance Committee chairman, Sen. William V. Roth Jr., R-Del.

5.   House Speaker Steve Gaw, a Democrat from Moberly, noted that abortion provisions were even attached to bills regulating long-term nursing care and tanning beds.

6.   Last year Republicans blocked financing to the IMF by linking it to the abortion provision.

7.   Levin and his colleagues are stuck on the abortion provision that thwarted the appropriations bill -- a ban on abortions at overseas military hospitals, regardless of the circumstances.

8.   One of those leading the charge to keep the abortion provision intact is Pat Buchanan.

9.   The abortion provision is part of an appropriations bill that covers financing for executive agencies, and as such, may be difficult for Clinton to veto.

10.   If the abortion provision survives all that, the committee chairman predicted Bush would veto the bill.