The vacuum decay in a de Sitter universe is studied within semiclassical
approximation for the class of effective inflaton potentials whose curvature at
the top is close to a critical value. By comparing the actions of the Hawking -
Moss instanton and the Coleman - de Luccia instanton(s) the mode of vacuum
decay is determined. The case when the fourth derivative of the effective
potential at its top is less than a critical value is discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, minor changes don