The city councils have proved powerless in the face of Saudi Arabia's ingrained governmental bureaucracy and a decidedly vague mandate.

Foreigners are not yet allowed to own stakes in Internet content providers or Internet service providers here, constraints that AOL and Legend reflected in outlining their venture's vague mandate.

Once the money was in hand, eight years of Congressional haggling ensued over how to interpret Smithson's rather vague mandate "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge."

Mr. Cater, who was given a vague mandate to "think ahead" and had been told by other Presidential assistants that they "made it up" as they went along, took a while to find his niche.

With that vague mandate, the current chairman, Reed Hundt, is mounting a last, desperate effort to overcome the industry's market mania and to require every station to carry a few uplifting children's shows each week.

The initial contract gave Mr. Greene a vague mandate "to provide advice, review plans and make recommendations regarding participation by women, minorities and local businesses and individuals," according to the board's minutes.

Congress's vague legal mandates are handed off to the states or the agencies or the courts to sort out.

The mission's vague mandate, created under Chapter VI of the UN Charter was unclear about the right to use force, particularly in defence of civilians.

There is only a vague mandate to draw up, sometime or other, an agreement on mutual judicial assistance.

That left his standing fragile from Inauguration Day, guaranteeing that each fight would require a balancing act as he sought to reconstitute a vague mandate for change.