Mexican officials have undertaken a similarly aggressive defense of their efforts, lobbying more intensively in Washington and spending $100,000 a month to hire three high-profile lobbying firms to assist them in getting their message out.

Although Indian officials swiftly undertook a huge public health effort to control the epidemic, the response did not provide a sound scientific basis for determining its cause and size.

Experts say when used in the context of the G8 summit the term "Sous-Sherpa" most likely refers to the hefty work load these senior officials undertake in preparation for the summit.

A House panel charged today that high-ranking officials of the Internal Revenue Service had undertaken questionable investigations, taken favors from people with potential tax problems, and used Government resources for private purposes.

Over a weekend in April 1989, these officials undertook an urgent effort to inform the National Security Council of the purchases and to propose that Western export controls be quietly tightened to deny Baghdad the bomb.

It cost $8.8 million to close the breach, a project federal, state and local officials undertook late in 1993.

Here in Montgomery County, where scatter-site housing is considered by housing experts to be operating near its best, officials undertook the program 14 years ago.

Within weeks of the cuts, officials of universities around the country undertook a vast lobbying campaign.

As such, colonial officials undertook a policy of Franco-Europeanisation in French colonies, most notably French West Africa.

But agricultural officials undertook what was perhaps the most determined of all fumigations: they sprayed the entire city of Santiago.