"Part of the blame can be laid at Bass's door, as he picked up unreliable partners," the Russian space agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov, said.

Helen Darling, a health care expert at the Watson Wyatt consulting firm, called the Government "a totally unreliable" partner.

The Afghan police could be unreliable partners, sometimes skipping planned missions, sometimes fleeing when shooting began.

As members of Mr. Hosokawa's Government, the Socialists proved unreliable partners.

The Americans complained that billions in new investment were in jeopardy because of obstreperous local leaders, unreliable Russian partners and a lethargic bureaucracy.

He disagreed with some experts who say some Latin American governments are unreliable partners because of corruption and an unwillingness to challenge the traffickers.

We can continue along this course, even if unreliable partners pull out.

The only thing we can afford to lose in this respect are unreliable and unpredictable partners.

To the surprise of many - but by no means all - European countries, Russia has recently proved to be one such unreliable partner.

Mr. Coots, now 65 and retired, tells a sad story of unreliable partners, business mistakes and an investment lost.