At a meeting with the press that was teleconferenced nationally, they stressed they had a bi-partisan concern about the nation's ability to deal with the destruction wrought by catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina.

With four of the country's biggest states behind a catastrophe program, regulators said they thought they had the clout to push it with Congress, governors and fellow regulators.

Tomorrow they said they plan to go to San Diego where the National Conference of Insurance Legislators is meeting to unveil their general concept. "We will talk to governors and members of Congress to put this issue on their agenda and get the debate going," Mr. Garamendi said.

Yesterday the regulators had said they wanted a catastrophe program to include man-made disasters, but today after Congressional committees took steps to advance an extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, Mr. McCarty said they "uniformly support reauthorization of TRIA."

Among the other points the regulators mentioned as part of their program were a push for building code improvements, a national commission to set premium rates and tax deferments for reserves that insurers earmarked for catastrophes.

The program calls for an elimination of the National Flood Insurance Program, which is federally subsidized.

As to concerns that insurers would try to funnel claim reserve monies into their profits, Mr. Garamendi announced: "No way. That money is set aside."

Mr. Mills said that among the details that would have to be worked out were the attachment points, or levels of loss insurers would have to sustain, for a state backup plan to go into effect. He said he would have to report to New York Gov. George Pataki and get his concurrence on any program.

Mr. Garamendi said the goal was to spread the risk across the nation, but "we know not all states want to participate and we're trying to develop a mechanism to deal with that reality. We're trying to sort out a positive incentive for people to be involved."

Certain states, Mr. Mills said, could band together in some form of compact to take part if their size did not warrant an individual state fund.

Whatever program is developed, Mr. McCarty said that it would have to be based on actuarially sound rates that accounted for regional risks and embodied the best principles of computer science and modeling. Creation of "a national commission makes sense to determine premiums."

The four regulators, who met in the Burlingame, Calif. suburb of San Francisco, for what they called the National Catastrophe Summit had sessions today with other regulators, as well as representatives of consumers, state legislators and the insurance industry.

Franklin Nutter, president of the Reinsurance Association of America said it was easy to discuss an overview, but the regulators would have to come up with more details.

Specifically, at just what attachment points federal and state backstops would kick in is left to further negotiations, he noted.