  We propose a novel extension of the standard coupled-channels framework for
heavy-ion reactions in order to analyze fusion reactions at deep subbarrier
incident energies. This extension simulates a smooth transition between the
diabatic two-body and the adiabatic one-body states. To this end, we damp
gradually the off-diagonal part of the coupling potential, for which the
position of the onset of the damping varies for each eigen channel. We show
that this model accounts well for the steep falloff of the fusion cross
sections for the $^{16}$O+$^{208}$Pb, $^{64}$Ni+$^{64}$Ni, and
$^{58}$Ni+$^{58}$Ni reactions.
