Won’t Help Noriega Evade Justice, Vatican Says : Diplomacy: It is the first public comment from the church secretariat. Communique is seen as a way to soft-pedal its differences with the U.S.

Soft-pedaling its diplomatic differences with the United States, the Vatican said Saturday that it does not intend to help deposed dictator Manuel A. Noriega evade justice by granting him refuge in its embassy in Panama City.

A communique from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State one day after the Vatican criticized harassment by U.S. troops surrounding the embassy was a clear peace-seeking gesture, in the judgment of Vatican observers.

In the first public comment from the Vatican secretariat overseeing negotiations, Saturday’s statement said that “close contacts” continue with the United States “in a spirit of serene collaboration” to find a “just and mutually acceptable solution” to what it called a complex case.

On Friday, the Vatican, sensitive to complaints from Roman Catholics for having sheltered Noriega in the first place, warned the United States against “interference” with its diplomatic rights.

By the standards of a traditional, close-mouthed foreign ministry which observes strict protocol and measures policy by decades, badgering an embassy with loud music and frisking its personnel, as U.S. troops have done, is boorish and counterproductive, one Vatican analyst said Saturday.

At the same time, the apparent lack of movement reflected in Saturday’s statement suggested to observers that the Vatican foresees no end to the impasse before the New Year.

Noriega, whose military government was toppled by a Dec. 20 American invasion, entered the Vatican nunciature one week ago today in flight from U.S. troops seeking to arrest him to face drug trafficking charges in Florida.

“The apostolic nuncio had no intention of obstructing the course of justice regarding a person who is accused of grave crimes,” the secretariat’s statement said.

Admitted to the embassy in what the Vatican calls a correct decision of the papal nuncio, Archbishop Jose Sebastian Laboa, Noriega has remained incommunicado there while the diplomatic tempest rages around him.

International conventions subscribed to by Latin American republics as well as the United States and the Vatican provide the right of political asylum but offer no protection to common criminals.

The Vatican said Friday that no decision had been taken on Noriega’s request for political asylum. Instead, he has “temporary political refuge” at the nunciature but is being encouraged to leave.

The former strongman will not be forced to go, however, the Vatican says. Neither, Vatican diplomats insist, is there any legal way that a diplomatic mission accredited to Panama can turn him over directly to the United States, which the Vatican regards juridically as “an occupying power.”

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro would not elaborate on the brief secretariat statement Saturday but indicated that the Vatican had still not received a letter written earlier this week in which Guillermo Endara, Panama’s new president, asked that Noriega be expelled from his sanctuary.

Throughout a tense week of negotiations, the Vatican has hinted repeatedly that it would look favorably on a formal request from Panama for Noriega to face criminal charges there.

Analysts here conclude that Endara sees nothing to gain for Panama by relieving the Vatican of a hot potato.

The United States, for its part, says that Panamanian stability cannot be assured while Noriega remains in the country. There has been no attempt by the Holy See to locate a third country willing to accept Noriega, the Vatican has said repeatedly.

Once again Saturday the Vatican defended Laboa’s acceptance of Noriega’s request for shelter, saying he acted “to help end a conflict which in the previous days had provoked great destruction and many victims.”

L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, made no mention Saturday of the diplomatic standoff with the United States. Instead, it published statements from three Panamanian bishops, and from Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York, hailing Laboa’s action in what O’Connor called “effectively neutralizing Noriega and his violent stand.”