U.S. Praises S. Africa’s Decision to Free 8 Black Leaders : Apartheid: Washington calls Pretoria’s move ‘positive’ but wants something more--an end to racial segregation.

The Bush Administration on Wednesday praised South Africa’s decision to release eight aging black militants but said that the white minority-led nation should go much further and eliminate its apartheid system of racial segregation.

“We are encouraged by these positive moves and hope that they are merely the first steps in a process which will see the release of all political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela. . . ,” said State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler. She added that she hopes future steps include the return of political exiles, the lifting of the state of emergency and associated restrictions on political activity and negotiations on a peaceful transition to democracy.

By ordering the release of the eight prisoners--including Walter Sisulu, a leading figure of the anti-apartheid movement who has been in jail for 25 years--the newly installed government of Frederik W. de Klerk moved closer to meeting the conditions set by the Administration for relaxing efforts to isolate the Pretoria regime both politically and economically.

However, U.S. officials said that it is still too early to consider even a partial lifting of the economic sanctions Congress imposed in 1986 over the veto of then-President Ronald Reagan.

Tutwiler welcomed De Klerk’s meeting Wednesday with Anglican Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, the Rev. Alan Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Rev. Frank Chikane, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches.

The talks marked the first face-to-face meeting between the white president and the three black clerics, who have been at the forefront of the anti-apartheid struggle.

De Klerk, who succeeded the hard-line Pieter W. Botha last month, has vowed publicly to reform or abolish apartheid.

U.S. officials said that they are encouraged by De Klerk’s rhetoric but are awaiting concrete results. One senior official said last month that De Klerk’s commitment to reform seemed to reflect a “sober analysis” that South Africa’s dominant white minority cannot hope to reverse the erosion in their once high standard of living unless the nation achieves cooperation among the races.

The Administration has made clear that it would like to find some way of reinforcing De Klerk’s positive actions while warning the new regime that any backsliding would result in even stiffer U.S. sanctions. The senior official who talked to reporters last month said that the Administration would consider partly relaxing the economic sanctions if the regime frees the rest of its political prisoners, lifts restrictions on black political activity and begins a dialogue with black leaders.

Sanction legislation restricts the activity of U.S. firms in South Africa, denies U.S. landing rights to South African Airways and imposes other economic restrictions. It also authorizes selective relaxation of those curbs, if conditions in South Africa change.

The Administration has said that freeing Sisulu, while an important symbolic act, is less significant than would be the release of Mandela, who as the founder of the African National Congress is considered the most powerful anti-apartheid leader. Mandela, 71, is serving a life sentence for treason.

Tutwiler ticked off five points that she said are the basis of U.S. policy toward South Africa and its neighboring states:

“One, our commitment to end apartheid; two, assistance to blacks in South Africa; three, active U.S. diplomacy to resolve conflicts and support economic development in (the) Southern Africa (region); four, consultation with our allies to support change in South Africa and, five, working with the Congress to develop a bipartisan approach toward South Africa.”