U.S. Talking With Many Nations : Strategy Is Sought; Reagan Calls Seizure ‘Ridiculous’

Confronted with its second Mideast hostage crisis in less than four months, the Reagan Administration deliberated with the governments of Italy, Syria, Egypt, Israel, Britain, Lebanon and other countries Tuesday in search of a strategy for dealing with Palestinian terrorists holding more than 400 persons, including an undetermined number of Americans, aboard the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

An interagency task force, activated soon after word of the hijacking reached Washington late Monday, tracked the crisis throughout the day, but officials--emphasizing that information still remained sketchy--would not publicly confirm reports that two American passengers have been executed by the Palestinian extremists who seized the ship.

President Reagan labeled the new terrorist attack upon civilians as “the most ridiculous thing” and said all governments must work together to end it.

When reporters, in the Oval Office during a picture-taking session with Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, sought to question him, Reagan declined to comment further, saying: “We’re still trying to gather all the information we can about this.”

There were reports that the terrorists have demanded that William L. Eagleton Jr., the U.S. ambassador to Syria, go to the Syrian port of Tartus to negotiate with them on their demand for the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners held by the Israeli government.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes would say only that Eagleton had not gone to the port; he refused to answer when he was repeatedly asked whether Eagleton would go later. It may have become academic when the Syrian government refused to let the ship anchor at Tartus.

(Early today, reports from the Middle East said that the ship had anchored off Alexandria and that the Palestinians had begun negotiations with Egyptian officials.)

U.S. Won’t Negotiate

Publicly, the White House and the State Department reiterated the United States’ oft-stated position that it will not negotiate with terrorists.

According to sources who declined to be identified, an urgent priority among U.S. officials is to prevent the ship from being taken into port at Beirut, where the last hostage crisis was played out and where anarchy prevails.

Officials here said that consultation among governments with citizens among the hostages had not reached a point of determining who would take the lead in trying to resolve the crisis. Neither would they respond to questions on the specific location of military forces.

Speakes told reporters Tuesday morning that perhaps a dozen, but certainly less than 20, Americans remained aboard the ship; most of the 80 U.S. citizens listed on the manifest of the Achille Lauro were believed to have stayed in Alexandria when the cruise departed.

“While there are a few Americans remaining on the ship,” said State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb, “for obvious reasons we cannot be absolutely certain as to the exact number. . . . The best estimate right now is that there are perhaps a dozen Americans aboard the ship.”

The interagency task force activated to deal with the crisis at the White House met for the first time Monday night. On Tuesday, the State Department organized another task force to track developments around the clock and make information available to families.