A prolonged delay could lead to misunderstanding, especially if a decision was reached months later to return the money to the donors.

But prolonged delay is dangerous, giving Iraq precious time to build biological or chemical weapons without being detected.

But apparently growing impatient over the prolonged delay, Moody's indicated recently that it might act on the credit rating this week.

But the contractor is already a few weeks behind schedule, and engineers are concerned about a prolonged delay.

"You have my most abject apologies for the prolonged delay," he said.

Despite the prolonged delay while the sides worked on the contract language, Bonds called it "normal procedure."

After a prolonged delay, the results indicated a strong correlation with Iconian design.

But they warned that prolonged delays could cost future sales as competitors bring out more modern models.

We have already seen the results of prolonged delays, paying more attention to certain problems.

I knew he wouldn't stay more than a few minutes; his masters became suspicious of prolonged delays in the West.