  We solve the equations governing light propagation in a negative-index
material with embedded nonlinearly saturable gain material using a
frequency-domain model. We show that available gain materials can lead to
complete loss compensation only if they are located in the regions where the
field enhancement is maximal. We study the increased enhancement of the fields
in the gain composite as well as in the metal inclusions and show analytically
that the effective gain is determined by the average near-field enhancement.
