1.  And Saudi officials sought to downplay talk that they were planning retribution if the White House did not take a firmer stand against Sharon.

2.  Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey said NATO should take a firmer stand.

3.  But many praise his vigor, and an apparently firmer stand on Nagorno-Karabakh.

4.  But since the election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May, Israel has taken a firmer stand.

5.  Edwards and others hope Clinton will take a firmer stand in his summit speech Thursday.

6.  Harkin said he met with administration officials and conceded they face problems with getting allies to take a firmer stand.

7.  Many also believe he has a firmer stand on the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly ethnic Armenian enclave inside neighboring Azerbaijan.

8.  The government has been urged to take a firmer stand on law and order in recent months to combat increasing crime triggered by worsening economic hardships.

9.  Former prime minister Yegor Gaidar, a liberal, on Tuesday called on liberal government members to take a firmer stand on the Chechnya issue.

10.  But recently the World Bank has taken, at least, privately, a firmer stand.