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[JimIvey]

For those who want to go to the source (took me a few minutes to find it):

http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/texts/rules/r4.htm#_4_10

I think the important language is "may claim the priority of one or more earlier applications filed either in or for any country party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property or in or for any Member of the World Trade Organization that is not party to that Convention."

Referring to the Paris Convention treaty itself (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/appxp_4.htm):

A subsequent application concerning the same subject as a previous first application within the meaning of paragraph (2), above, filed in the same country of the Union. shall be considered as the first application, of which the filing date shall be the starting point of the period of priority, if, at the time of filing the subsequent application, the said previous application has been withdrawn, abandoned, or refused, without having been laid open to public inspection and without leaving any rights outstanding, and if it has not yet served as a basis for claiming a right of priority. The previous application may not thereafter serve as a basis for claiming a right of priority.

Section C(4) of Article 4.

So, if I'm reading this right, you'd have to abandon any application filed more than 12 mos. prior and cannot have claimed priority on that earlier application.  You'd have to re-file in the same country within the last 12 mos.  And the earlier application can't have been published.  That's all I can think of.  

Regards.