A spokesman cautioned later, however, that there was no way of predicting for sure that a plan would be completed by then.

From Washington, a spokesman for the State Department cautioned that states could not conduct their own foreign policies.

The president's spokesman cautioned against holding Nigeria up to standards that he said even the United States did not meet, recalling Florida in 2000.

In London, a spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry cautioned that the reforms were "only part of the picture."

Although polls suggest that Mr. Washington would win election even if he had only one opponent, the Mayor's spokesman has cautioned against overconfidence.

A spokesman for Sherman M. Funk, the inspector general, cautioned that the investigation was still in its early stages.

But the spokesman for Mr. Spitzer, who took the lead on investigations into the insurance industry last spring, cautioned that the timing is still in flux.

A spokesman for Nielsen Media Research cautioned against reading too profound a societal shift into the ratings slide.

Despite the slowdown in the combat, military spokesmen at the Bagram air base north of Kabul cautioned against expecting remaining Qaeda troops to give up.

Mr. Klein's office did not criticize the test, but a spokesman, Peter Kerr, cautioned against reading too much into the test results.