"Either our proposals are carried out quickly and peacefully within a certain deadline or there will be a final and decisive showdown," the leftist as-Safir newspaper quoted him as saying.

Whether tomorrow's vote will prove to be the decisive showdown, though, is unclear, officials said.

No Victory Claims Neither side claimed victory or admitted defeat in a contest that had been widely portrayed as a decisive showdown between two irreconcilable forces.

Few people in Peru have expected a decisive showdown soon with the group known here as Sendero Luminoso.

Asked if he thought that he and Martin were headed toward a decisive showdown of power, Quinn answered, "Hopefully, it doesn't come to that."

The West's principal civilian authority here set the stage today for what some diplomats are portraying as the opening round of a decisive diplomatic showdown with the Bosnian Serb authorities.

What is clear is that this potentially decisive showdown began when and where it did because of serious lapses in the American military command structure in Iraq.

For example, Havan had a few cohorts over in Fenomat who would only obey his commands whenever it came to a decisive showdown.

Advocates of more radical change have urged Mr. Gorbachev to seize the opportunity for a decisive showdown on the party's course.

"I'd stepped out and up on the angle," said Richter recounting Fleury's second of three goals on the night and the decisive showdown.