Among the issues that the administration is still grappling with, midlevel officials say, is how to deal with nations, including Israel, that have never signed the nonproliferation treaty and whether it would be possible to prevent signers that have built major nuclear infrastructures from leaving the treaty.

Some members who attended said the administration was clearly grappling with the unintended consequences of the military options under consideration.

On the contrary, they are expected to remain cautious as the new administration grapples with pressure to pursue a more centrist path.

The administration has been grappling with Colombian policy since last year, when Congressional Republicans made their proposal and President Andres Pastrana outlined a $7.5 billion strategy to solve his nation's crisis in an address to the United Nations General Assembly.

As the administration grapples with how to reconcile sparring Sunni and Shiite factions in Iraq, Mr. Bush is to meet Tuesday with the Iraqi vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, the leader of the most powerful Sunni Arab party in Iraq.

As Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration grapples with the perennial urban problem of how to provide public toilets in a vast, populous city, the private sector has unwittingly stepped up to the plate, providing a seemingly endless array of options.

At the same time, his administration is grappling with criticism that it has failed to deal with a wave of kidnappings and other crime, and that he is moving too slowly in dealing with the nation's monstrous poverty.

Mr. Kibaki, elected in 2002, has experienced a flurry of critical press coverage in recent months as his administration has grappled with accusations of corruption and political infighting.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has cited the problem as a priority of his administration, particularly as his administration is grappling with sizable budget deficits for the current and coming years.

The administration, she says, was grappling with ways to "rebuild a consensus about foreign assistance."