  Fuchsian equations provide a way of constructing large classes of spacetimes
whose singularities can be described in detail. In some of the applications of
this technique only the analytic case could be handled up to now. This paper
develops a method of removing the undesirable hypothesis of analyticity. This
is applied to the specific case of the Gowdy spacetimes in order to show that
analogues of the results known in the analytic case hold in the smooth case. As
far as possible the likely strengths and weaknesses of the method as applied to
more general problems are displayed.
