The Gross-Pitaevskii representation for the atom-atom interaction in the nonlinear Schrodinger equation for a trapped dilute BoseEinstein condensate is shown to not generally satisfy the Hartree self-consistent-field equation. An alternate representation is proposed to satisfy the Hartree equation that takes proper account of both the repulsive and attractive parts of the true atom-atom potential. This is explicitly demonstrated for the cases of dilute Rb and He condensates. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.