Some Allies Urged Bigger Attack on Libya--Reagan

President Reagan said today that after he decided to launch a limited military strike against Libya, some U.S. allies suggested a coordinated, “all-out” attack to force a change in Moammar Kadafi’s policy of exporting terrorism.

In an interview with four news agencies, Reagan said the suggestions were “that we look seriously together at real major action” against Libya.

He did not name the nations or the leaders who offered that advice. But the Washington Times, in a report published today, quoted a senior Administration official as saying French President Francois Mitterrand told U.S. envoy Vernon A. Walters that he would support the mission only if it was strong enough to be aimed at overthrowing Kadafi.

Walters made a whirlwind tour of European capitals in the days just before the April 14 air raid to inform the allies of U.S. intentions and to seek their support. Only Britain publicly backed Reagan’s action and permitted use of British air bases by U.S. Air Force planes participating in the attack.

“We found that some of them were suggesting that--not that the answer be nothing of that kind--but that we look seriously at, together, real major action against Libya,” Reagan said. “Some of them suggested that. . . , if we were going to resort to force, . . . then perhaps it should be a wider-based and a more all-out effort to change the Libyan policy.”

Worries About First Lady

Reagan said he expects to discuss the matter further next week when he meets other allied leaders at the seven-nation economic summit in Tokyo.

“I’m not going there with the idea we should get some grandiose statement,” Reagan said. “I think we all know how we feel about terrorism. I’m hopeful we can sit down and work out what it is that we can do together to deal with this problem.”

During the session with four reporters in the Oval Office, Reagan also said that he worries whenever his wife, Nancy, “goes around the block” but that neither he nor the First Lady has considered canceling her plan to travel separately to Malaysia and Thailand while he is in Asia.

Reagan also said he regrets it if the U.S. attack against Libya killed children and innocent civilians but said he is “equally sorry” for deaths of an infant in the bombing of a TWA jetliner and an 11-year-old girl in the assault on the Rome airport.

The President was sharply critical of France for refusing to let U.S. warplanes to fly over French territory, thus forcing them to skirt Europe to get to Libya.

‘All in This Together’

“I think it is difficult to understand, if we’re all in this together and supposed to be sharing the protection of all of our countries, to deny the right of our planes to fly over,” Reagan said. “I can’t see any justification for it.”

He noted the French have since expelled two Libyan diplomats who were believed to be involved in planning an attack on people waiting for visas outside the U.S. Consulate in Paris, indicating that the French government does recognize the threat posed by the Kadafi regime.

The Administration’s bombing of selected targets in Libya last Tuesday has come under domestic criticism since the body of Peter Kilburn, an American librarian in Beirut, was found near a note saying he had been killed in retaliation for the bombing. But White House spokesman Larry Speakes said today that the Administration is not prepared to blame Libya for Kilburn’s death.

As for five other Americans still held hostage in Lebanon, Speakes said: “We are pressing our extensive efforts with various governments and parties to obtain their freedom. This tragic killing only reinforces our commitment to combat international terrorism as effectively as possible.”