The World - News from June 9, 1986

U.S. officials are trying hard to talk Israel out of a multi-billion-dollar project to develop the Lavi, its own fighter aircraft, Israeli defense sources said. They added that the Reagan Administration is pressing Israeli officials to instead buy American F-16s or F-20s. Israel has already invested more than $1 billion, much of it U.S. aid, in the Lavi project. The sources would not confirm an Israeli television report that Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger have written letters advising Israel to drop the Lavi.