  We introduce a new formulation of baryon chiral perturbation theory which
improves the ultraviolet behavior of propagators and can be interpreted as a
smooth cutoff regularization scheme. It is equivalent to the standard approach,
preserves all symmetries and therefore satisfies the Ward identities. Our
formulation is equally well defined in the vacuum, one- and few-nucleon sectors
of the theory. The equations (Bethe-Salpeter, Lippmann-Schwinger, etc.) for the
scattering amplitudes of the few-nucleon sector are free of divergences in the
new approach. Unlike the usual cutoff regularization, our 'cutoffs' are
parameters of the Lagrangian and do not have to be removed.

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;Nuclear Theory