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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991                   TAG: 9103020426
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From The New York Times/ and The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CEASE-FIRE MEETING SUNDAY/ NO TAXPAYERS' MONEY TO REBUILD IRAQ, BUSH SAYS

Administration officials said the Iraqi military command requested the delay Friday night for what were described as "understandable logistical reasons."

Officially, the allied command said the talks had been delayed 24 hours, but Pentagon officials suggested it might be longer.

In his first news conference since he ordered a truce in the fighting, Bush also pledged to move fast to resolve the chronic problems of the Middle East by capitalizing on what he said were the best prospects for diplomacy in decades.

Bush said the allies would be represented at the meeting by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and senior commanders from other coalition countries, including Lt. Gen. Khalid bin Sultan, the Saudi officer who commands the Arab contingent.

The meeting will be not a formal ceremony of surrender but a technical military discussion of how to turn the current truce into a permanent cease-fire.

Bush and other administration officials said it would focus on the details surrounding release of both sides' prisoners, allied demands that Iraq disclose the location of all land and sea mines it placed, and the coalition's insistence that the Iraqi army give up any hope of reclaiming the armor and artillery it left behind.

The accounting of POWs and personnel listed as missing in action will be the first agenda item.

A high-ranking officer said today that the allies believe Iraqis tortured and killed two airmen they had held. The officer, who has access to sensitive intelligence reports, said it was believed the two were Britons. It wasn't clear, however, whether they were among a small number of known POWs or were other British troops listed as missing in action.

There are 13 known POWs, including nine Americans, two Britons, one Italian one Kuwaiti. There are an additional 66 MIAs, including 45 Americans, 10 Britons, 10 Saudis and one Italian.

Bush said that although Iraq had a "big reconstruction job" ahead, "I don't want to see one single dime of the United States taxpayers' money go into the reconstruction of Iraq."

The scheduled military meeting is part of a three-tiered process of military and political discussions intended to move the two sides from the truce to a permanent cease-fire and beyond, to new security arrangements in the gulf.

Other issues, such as payment of war reparations by Iraq and how long economic sanctions against Iraq will be kept in force, are being discussed at the U.N. Security Council.

The United States on Friday dropped an explicit threat to resume war if Iraq fails to heed allied demands. Diplomats familiar with negotiations said China and the Soviet Union objected to provisions of the tough U.S. draft, which spelled out conditions for Iraq to meet to make the cease-fire permanent.

But they said all five permanent members of the council - the United States, Britain, China, France and the Soviet Union - were in general agreement on the U.S. draft and the document could be presented to the full, 15-member council in closed consultations scheduled this Saturday afternoon.

More long-term questions, including the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, will be explored by Secretary of State James Baker in a trip to the region that begins next week.

Declaring that the prospects for diplomacy in the Middle East were the best in decades, the president said he wanted "to move fast" on such problems as the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the upheaval in Lebanon.

Administration officials said they had no assurances that any of their wartime Arab allies were prepared to make peace with Israel.

But Vice President Dan Quayle said in an interview Friday with WSB-TV of Atlanta that the United States is "hopeful that Arab countries will begin the recognition process of Israel."

Quayle seemed to play down prospects for an international conference on the Palestinians, an idea that has been pressed by the Soviet Union and Arab nations and Palestinians, but rejected by Israel. The United States has in the past supported such a conference only if it served as an umbrella for direct Israeli-Arab negotiations.