In addition, a number of private-sector groups also fund and support the Centre.

A spokesman for Fiat, Italy's largest private-sector industrial group, confirmed reports of the arrests but would not say on what charges.

"You're making a mistake by coming to see an economist about this," Francisco Calderon, chief economist of the Business Coordinating Council, a major private-sector group here, told a reporter.

It was judged in the early 1970's that that wasn't the best process and therefore it was turned over to a very independent private-sector group, namely the F.A.S.B.

In later years, the founders were joined by other important public- and private-sector industrial groups and banks.

A spokeswoman for NASD, a private-sector regulatory group for the securities industry, declined to comment.

The accounting standards board, based in Norwalk, Conn., is a private-sector group appointed by a foundation that has representatives from business and accounting groups.

Mathematica works across the United States and in countries around the world for clients that include federal agencies, state and local governments, foundations, universities, and private-sector and international groups.

The private-sector group hopes that the 559-member Constitutional Assembly will be more moderate than the special commission.

American-style lobbying is usually inappropriate, but foreign governments are increasingly in need of technical advice to execute economic reforms and have begun to establish private-sector advisory groups for that purpose.