A size-extensive, multireference coupled-cluster method for studies of quasidegenerate states based on the Jeziorski-Monkhorst [16] ansatz for the cluster operator (a = SeqP,, where the sum is extended over the configurations spanning the model space), is presented and applied in pilot calculations. The method is referred to as multireference coupled electron-pair method (MR CEPM), because it is assumed that the individual cluster operators can be approximated by their two-body parts, i.e., T, == T,(2). The linear version of this method (MR L-CEPM) is also discussed. Both methods are applied to two simple model systems: (1) a minimum basis set model involving eight hydrogen atoms in various spacial arrangements for which the degree of quasidegeneracy can be continuously varied; (2) The usefulness of the cluster ansatz for representing the wave function in the many-fermion theory became apparent from the work of Hubbard [ 11 almost 30 years ago. Since then much work has been invested into the development of size-extensive [2,3] methods of approximately solving the Schrodinger equation which are based on this ansatz. Let us just mention the pioneering work of Coester and Kumme1 [4] in the nuclear many-body problem, followed by that of hick [5] in the many-electron theory of atomic and molecular systems. Extensive reviews of both methodological and computational developments of these methods, known as coupled-cluster (cc) methods, are currently available [6-91. Due to the developments just mentioned, various versions of the cc approach have become broadly used standard ab initio methods for electron correlation studies in many-electron closed-shell states. Unfortunately, the generalization of cc methods to the non-closed-shell case, i.e., to quasidegenerate and open-shell states, turned out to be a very difficult problem. Despite the progress achieved during the present decade, for quasidegenerate states the cc methods are still rather far from becoming a reliable standard tool of contemporary quantum chemistry. Since the cluster ansatz may be considered as a very compact representation of a perturbation expansion, the problems encountered