NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball still hopes to decide the 2004 home of the Montreal Expos by the All-Star break.

The committee on the Expos' future will hear presentations next week with government groups from Washington, Northern Virginia and Portland, Ore. Bob DuPuy, baseball's No. 2 official, said Thursday a timetable should emerge following those meetings.

"Our goal is to have a resolution by the All-Star Game or as soon thereafter as possible,'' said DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer.

Baseball would like to have financing for a new ballpark in place before deciding where the Expos will move to. Legislation is necessary in all three areas, and it's unclear how long it would take for laws to be enacted.

"I think it's probably the most complicated piece of the puzzle,'' DuPuy said. "We'd like to see legislation by yesterday.''

Commissioner Bud Selig, speaking after a speech to a sports business group, declined to put a timetable on a decision, saying he wanted to let the committee proceed with as little public discussion as possible.

The other 29 teams bought the Expos from Jeffrey Loria for $120 million before the 2002 season. Because the team has drawn poorly in recent years at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, the commissioner's office moved 22 of the Expos' 81 home games this year to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

After a locale is selected, baseball will negotiate with potential ownership groups.

DuPuy thinks there is enough time for everything to fall into place but said it was possible a decision on the team's long-term future won't be made in time for the 2004 season.

"Our goal is not to have that happen,'' he said. "But our goal wasn't to own them in '03, either.''

League officials might not be able to find a new home even if there is a willing buyer and eager city.

That's because the federal racketeering and fraud case brought by 14 former Montreal Expos owners against current Marlins owner Loria as well as Selig and DuPuy is still pending. "If they try to move the team, the judge has told us to file a preliminary injunction to stop them from moving and we intend to do that," Jeffrey Kessler, a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges who is representing the plaintiffs, told ESPN.com.