Washington ? A Democratic Party task force Saturday approved changes aimed at bringing more diversity to the early stages of the 2008 presidential nominating calendar but only after defeating a far more significant proposal to eliminate the special first-in-the-nation status of Iowa and New Hampshire.

The final report of the Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling reaffirmed Iowa’s opening caucuses and New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary election but also proposed changes that would authorize caucuses in one or two other states between Iowa and New Hampshire and primaries in one or two other states the week after New Hampshire.

The proposal was designed to mollify critics of the current system, who argued that Iowa and New Hampshire are too unrepresentative to have privileged status. They wanted more significant changes to assure greater regional, demographic and economic diversity at the front of the nominating process.

The additional states at the beginning are expected to come from the South and the West in an effort to give African American and Latino voters a larger voice in selecting the party’s nominee.