For him working form nature is no more than a preliminary stage.

A. In many ways, the investigation remains at a preliminary stage.

Relief officials said those plans were at the preliminary stage.

Certainly, however, matters could not long remain in a preliminary stage.

He was aware that events tonight were only in the preliminary stage.

I'm only saying that anything he and I discussed was at a very preliminary stage.

Our understanding of these patterns is still in a preliminary stage.

He will be entered in at the preliminary stage this year.

The research is at a preliminary stage, and the drugs have yet to be tested in large groups of people.

Inquiries into these issues are at a preliminary stage, she added.

"This is all at a very preliminary stage," the official added.

The Federal case, meanwhile, is still in its preliminary stages.

Because the review is in the preliminary stages, she said, information on participants was not available.

I would say that the matter is in a preliminary stage."

Exploratory research is used when problems are in a preliminary stage.

It appears that the inquiry is at a preliminary stage.

Executives said the talks had reached only a preliminary stage and never got off the ground.

He added that officials were only in the "preliminary stages" of the investigation.

But both described the negotiating process as now being in the preliminary stages.

The committees are in a preliminary stage of their inquiries.

Teams kept head-to-head results of preliminary stage in both groups.

He called the action "a preliminary stage," and said the first requests were made "some time earlier this summer, perhaps six weeks ago."

By day's end, five jurors had made it past the preliminary stage, and will return for further questioning.

"Our work is still at a preliminary stage," Alicia said carefully.

"It's at a very preliminary stage, and there are not any concrete recommendations to the President."