Baker Eases Stance on S. Africa Regime : Policy: He favors an end to diplomatic isolation after De Klerk underscores his commitment to abolish apartheid.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, once deeply skeptical of South Africa’s commitment to political reform, concluded after an hourlong meeting Thursday with President Frederik W. de Klerk that the regime is determined to abolish apartheid.

As a result, Baker believes that it is time to end South Africa’s diplomatic isolation, although U.S. economic sanctions must remain in place until the government meets conditions set by Congress.

A senior official who gave a detailed account of Baker’s thinking to reporters traveling with him from Cape Town to Johannesburg said that 13 months ago, when South African Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha said the government would end apartheid, Baker did not believe him. But, the senior official, who declined to be identified by name, said the secretary of state now is convinced that the system of official racial discrimination will be abandoned.

Baker became the first U.S. secretary of state in 12 years to visit South Africa. He did so over the objections of many of the country’s black leaders who said it was too soon for the United States and other nations to welcome South Africa back into the world community.

Shortly before Baker kept his appointment with De Klerk, he met at the Cape Town residence of the U.S. ambassador with a number of anti-apartheid leaders who told him that he should not have come. With Baker at his side, Govan Mbeki, a member of the national executive committee of the African National Congress, the principal anti-apartheid organization, said the secretary of state’s visit dilutes “the pressure we call upon the international community to impose on South Africa.”

Black nationalist leader Nelson R. Mandela, deputy president of the ANC, made the same point to Baker on Wednesday when they met in Windhoek, Namibia.

Nevertheless, the diplomatic tide is clearly running in South Africa’s direction. After his meeting with Baker, De Klerk met with the prime ministers of two African nations, Somalia and Mauritius.

Earlier in the day, De Klerk told a press conference in Windhoek that South Africa’s diplomatic isolation is coming to an end.

“I expect South Africa’s diplomatic relations will broaden in the next months and years,” he said.

De Klerk was in Windhoek to participate in independence ceremonies Wednesday for Namibia, a territory that South Africa had ruled for 70 years. He met a number of foreign leaders there, including Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

Asked if Baker agrees that it is a good idea for the world to end South Africa’s isolation, the senior official aboard the secretary of state’s aircraft said, “To the extent that (diplomatic isolation) was the policy of the United States, it is no longer the policy of the United States.”

The official said Baker urged De Klerk to end South Africa’s “state of emergency” at once and to release all remaining political prisoners. He said De Klerk seemed to agree in principle but gave no assurances about when the steps would be taken.

Standing between De Klerk and Botha outside Tuynhuys, the 18th-Century mansion that serves as the president’s Cape Town office, Baker sought to put on the public record what he said were private promises of continued reform.

Turning to De Klerk, Baker said, “May I repeat what you told me during our meeting when you said that ‘we are engaged here in South Africa in an irreversible process and that we will follow it to its logical conclusion.’

“The minister (Botha) said during the course of our lunch that it is the desire of the South African government to lift the state of emergency and to release political prisoners,” he added.

But when De Klerk was asked when the government would end its emergency powers and free all political prisoners, he said only that the subject would be discussed during negotiations with opposition leaders scheduled to begin April 11.

The talks will mark the first time the white minority-led government has consulted with representatives of its chief black nationalist opponents about the country’s political future.

The official on Baker’s plane said some of the black leaders the secretary of state met Thursday suggested a referendum to determine the program that the opposition should bring to the talks. The official said the referendum would provide a firmer mandate for the opposition negotiators.

He also said that Baker relayed the proposal to South African government officials, who apparently had not heard of it before.