Real-space techniques used for phase extension and refinement in the modern direct procedures forab initiocrystal structure solution of proteins have been optimized for application to powder diffraction data. The new process has been implemented in a modified version ofEXPO[Altomareet al.(1999).J.Appl.Cryst.32, 339–340]. The method is able to supply a structural model that is more complete than that provided by the standardEXPOprogram. The model is then refinedviaa diagonal least-squares procedure, but only when the ratio of the number of observations to the number of structure parameters to be refined is larger than a given threshold.