But the number of countries with reservations about Open XML in its current form remains large enough that the format might not be approved by ISO if it were put to a vote Thursday.

In early February, twenty member nations of the Geneva-based ISO submitted responses to the proposal to put Open XML on a 5-month fast-track process for approval as an open, international standard.

Open XML is being championed by another standards group, , which in December approved 20-1 a proposal to certify Open XML, the native document format in Office 2007.

At that time, parties opposing Open XML's ratification had speculated that most if not all of the comments identified fatal "contradictions" in Ecma's proposal that would lead them to openly oppose Open XML's quick certification.

In ISO-speak, a contradiction is a serious objection on technical or other reasons to ratifying a proposed standard. Within ISO, there is a vigorous debate on whether a contradiction, once identified, should spell doom to a would-be standard or signal the beginning of protracted negotiations.