Administration officials said that China - long the Khmer Rouge's chief foreign patron - posed the main threat to Security Council passage of the resolution.

China, the principal foreign patron of the Khmer Rouge in the 1980's, is applauded by diplomats here for having cut off assistance to the rebels.

So is the tendency of the island's leaders to reach out for foreign patrons and to claim geostrategic significance for a parochial power struggle.

Nevertheless, seven years after the Russian withdrawal, fighting continues in Afghanistan among a dozen factions using weapons supplied by former foreign patrons.

Another difficulty facing the leaders of the force has resulted because many of its traditional foreign patrons have lost interest or even befriended the white-minority Goverment.

By the late 1980's Renamo had lost its foreign patrons, and the Government had abandoned Communism for a version of free-market pragmatism.

The last years of Pakubuwana's reign, from 1717 to 1719, were dominated by rebellion in East Java against the kingdom and its foreign patrons.

His general untrustworthiness and his unpopularity amongst Afghans made it more difficult for Amin to find new "foreign patrons".

Maybe all of this will induce China to come in and play foreign patron, to which one is tempted to say, Be our guest.

These establishments can also present foreign patrons with grossly inflated bar tabs, threatening those customers who refuse to pay.