The 1990 results included a $30 million gain from an accounting change.

The loss would have been $261 million but for an accounting change related to the treatment of income taxes.

The accounting change, they note, had no effect on reported earnings.

Analysts said they were not concerned about the accounting change.

Those results were before the effect of a required accounting change.

The period a year ago included a gain of $544.2 million from an accounting change.

The second part of the accounting change will not hit until late in the decade.

It explained the difference as a result of an accounting change.

The company said it took a $10.6 million charge in this year's quarter for an accounting change.

In the last three years, its income, before the effects of an accounting change, has increased by 22 percent over all.