Consequences of the turbulence excited by the cross-field current instability (CCI) for explosive reconnection and the tapping of lobe energy into the current disruption region are considered. It is shown that choking of the electron compressibility effect to restore the appropriate reconnection (tearing) mode may be considerably facilitated by the combined action of the pitch angle diffusion induced by CCI and the shielding effect of transient electrons. Another promising way of exciting the tearing mode is by coordinating it with the particle exchange between trapped and transient electron populations induced by the CCI turbulence, which is modulated in turn by the tearing mode because of local thinning of the current sheet. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union