The meetings, surrounded by ceremony and prearranged like some vast theatrical production, generally merely formalize agreements that have been hammered out at lower levels.

She and other lawyers merely formalized those terms, she said.

"This declaration merely formalizes an ugly reality."

"It merely formalizes things they have already been doing for the last 10 months."

The report merely formalizes what many doctors have already been doing, Dr. Burstein said.

In essence, these analysts said, yesterday's announcement merely formalizes the role established in recent years.

For Sarvar and other towns just east of Western Europe, the expansion will merely formalize what is already a fully integrated relationship.

The Vatican says Catholics have been in Russia for centuries and that the creation of the dioceses merely formalized the church's presence there.

Dr. Green's proposal would merely formalize the requirement.

Its preference for relatives merely formalizes a common-law preference that applies to children of all races, she said.