Since the late-1990s, Article 9 has been the central feature of a dispute over the ability of Japan to undertake multilateral military commitments overseas.

The proposal for the "rapid reaction" force was not intended to suggest that NATO might undertake "out-of-area" military commitments.

But developing countries are also to undertake specific commitments at some point because their emissions will probably surpass those of the rich nations in two decades or so.

The regulation on the subject of the Community' s forests must be reformed, but Parliament cannot undertake financial commitments until the present regulation expires in 2001.

The authorities have undertaken commitments in this area and it is obviously necessary, in my view, to impose strict controls over their implementation.

I need to underline that I must be certain that if we undertake commitments, we will be able physically to fulfil them.

We have undertaken commitments in terms of market access and debt alleviation, as well as reserving a share of official development assistance for the least developed countries.

I expect that the EU will persuade President Medvedev to grant his negotiating team full powers to undertake specific commitments.

In particular, I won't undertake commitments for those of us who are buried.

But the third-world countries show no signs of backing off on their insistence that the rich nations show the way by undertaking specific commitments first.