Mr. Jordan said the two officials had neither confirmed nor denied that they had been calling executives in an effort to block the talks.

Some airline executives have called chief executives of companies that had banned international travel by employees, trying to get the restrictions eased.

On Thursday, Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader, said the Senate should call executives of major oil companies to testify about high prices.

Officials frantically called executives at power generators in the Northwest to "see what we could argue out of them," said the chief operating officer, Kellan Fluckiger.

They staged their first big "cattle call" in September at the Networld conference in Atlanta, executives involved with the coalition said.

Senator John Kerry, the likely Democratic nominee for president, has called chief executives who shift work abroad "Benedict Arnolds."

He was a loner who sometimes called executives or associates at 2 or 3 in the morning to chat.

Regulation: Replacement for PCC needs standards and compliance arm that could call in editors or newspapers executives to give evidence.

Once there, he called executives from major U.S. studios and asked if he could show them his film.

Grace called top executives together to tackle "the tremolite problem."