The operators, though, face more immediate hurdles.

For that, a series of immediate hurdles has to be somehow surmounted: Will the I.R.A. and the paramilitaries hand over their guns?

One immediate hurdle for Democrats is the proposed freeze on the alternative minimum tax.

While attracting merchants is the ultimate goal, persuading users to share their thoughts with the world is the more immediate, and often trickier, hurdle.

The immediate hurdle was purely psychological.

The most immediate hurdle, he said, is the sudden decision by Ukrainian customs to declare scrap brass and steel of "strategic" use and prohibit its export.

The inventors of the original semiconductor design technology are for the most part still bullish about extending that progress, whatever the immediate hurdles.

More than Toyota, however, Mr. O'Neill's immediate hurdle is Nissan Motor.

Enacting the House bill would pose at least one large, immediate hurdle: a shortage of female drill instructors.

The immediate hurdle facing any attempt at deliberate relic assembling is: Who gets to play the volcano?