The pace of private negotiations, though, has begun to pick up.

One executive discouraged public discussion of the matter at an industry conference last month while private negotiations were going on.

Doesn't that seem an odd thing to do when you are locked in private negotiations?

The United States said it would not intervene in private negotiations.

Two grueling weeks of public debate and private negotiation have led to this moment.

The trouble was, Doyle wasn't the first person to enter a private negotiation of this kind.

I thought it best - in view of our private negotiations.

While the majority of the committee's business was conducted through private negotiations, five hearings and meetings are public record.

If signals are not issued, private negotiations might founder on the public record, many experts say.

Yet Government officials and opposition leaders said their private negotiations had already gone well beyond the document.