What those rights were, she said, was a matter to be negotiated between diplomats from the United States and the detainees' home countries.

Secure email has transformed the contact between diplomats and the ministry.

The Administration also refuses to call the talks between Iraqi and American diplomats "negotiations."

These dispatches sound like studiously formal exchanges between mid-level diplomats.

This is not unusual in relations between American diplomats and the trusted officials of host countries close to the United States.

The detailed plans for military cooperation were supplemented by intensified contacts between diplomats and politicians.

Democracy has not in any way been abridged or threatened by the secrecy that surrounded these communications between diplomats and the leaders of their government.

The dispute, unresolved after 17 rounds of negotiations between Chinese and British diplomats, now seems in its final throes.

It is, of course, a statement that has been drawn up following consultation between the 15, between diplomats.

The consequences: confusion within the Administration and bruising collisions between diplomats and spies.