Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 11, 1990                   TAG: 9006110096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: OTTAWA                                LENGTH: Short

SEVEN PREMIERS SIGN QUEBEC PACT

But serious doubts remained as to whether all 10 provinces would go along with a deal that would endow Quebec with a special constitutional status.

Three remaining provinces must ratify the Meech Lake constitutional accord before June 23 to achieve the unanimous consent required. Newfoundland appeared the least certain.

Premier Clyde Wells offered only a conditional signature to Saturday's agreements, undertaking to submit them for approval by Newfoundland's legislature or by its 570,000 people in a referendum.

But he said he regarded the plan to give a special status to Quebec, as endorsed at the Ottawa meeting, to be "wrong" for Canada and for Newfoundland.

The premiers of Manitoba and New Brunswick, the other holdout provinces, expressed confidence that their legislatures would ratify the constitutional pact.