1.   Talks eventually defused the tensions.

2.   Abkhaz officials and Russian military officers held talks to defuse tensions over the weekend, but an Abkhaz spokesman later said they failed to find any long-term solution.

3.   Egypt, whose President Hosni Mubarak turned down an invitation to the Washington summit, voiced pessimism Thursday that the Erez peace talks could defuse the crisis.

4.   There had still been hopes that lower-level talks could defuse the heightened tensions between the nuclear rivals triggered by a bloody militant attack in Kashmir last month.