Mandela Rejects Plea on Violence : South Africa: He delivers a polite lecture to Bush. The President had urged him to renounce all but peaceful means to achieve goal of a non-racial society.

Barely masking his considerable differences with President Bush, black South African leader Nelson Mandela bluntly told the President Monday that he will not renounce the use of violence to end white domination of his racially torn nation.

Mandela delivered an extemporaneous lecture of about 10 minutes to the President in what, for most visiting dignitaries, is a brief welcoming ceremony at which differences are seldom aired, no matter how politely.

Mandela, released in February after serving 27 years in prison, rejected a Bush plea that all parties in South Africa “renounce the use of violence.” He also encouraged Bush to maintain U.S. economic sanctions against South Africa. And he nearly ordered the President, who smiled uneasily at times during the polite lecture, to consult with the African National Congress, of which he is deputy president, before taking any steps affecting South Africa.

Mandela’s low-key but unbending message was delivered as he and Bush were beginning three hours of talks at the White House.

The first five days of the South African’s 12-day tour of the United States had the trappings of a political campaign, but the session with Bush assumed the more sober tenor of a diplomatic visit.

After the meeting with Bush, Mandela and Herman J. Cohen, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said that the two leaders narrowed their differences. But neither pointed to major signs of progress and there was no indication that Mandela would return to South Africa with pledges of financial support from the U.S. government.

In advance of the meeting, Bush twice invoked the memory of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in urging Mandela to avoid violent means to achieve his goal of a non-racial society in South Africa.

“All parties must seize the opportunity to move ahead in a spirit of compromise and tolerance, flexibility and patience,” Bush said. “I call on all elements in South African society to renounce the use of violence in armed struggle, break free from the cycle of repression and violent reaction that breeds nothing but more fear and suffering.

“As Martin Luther King said on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, we cannot walk alone. Sir, we here in America walk in solidarity with all the South Africans who seek through nonviolent means democracy, human rights and freedom.”

Mandela, in response, referred wryly to Bush’s plea for nonviolence. “The remarks he has made here are due to the fact that he has not as yet got a proper briefing from me,” the South African said.

As Bush looked on without expression, Mandela continued:

“As long as a government is prepared to talk, to maintain channels of communication between itself and the governed, there can be no question of violence whatsoever. But when a government decides to ban political organizations of the oppressed, intensifies oppression and does not allow any free political activity, no matter how peaceful and nonviolent, then the people have no alternative but to resort to violence.”

Mandela also pressured Bush to maintain the sanctions limiting U.S. economic activity in South Africa. “It is because of sanctions that such enormous progress has been made in the attempt to address the problems of our country,” he told the President.

The sanctions were imposed in 1986 by the Ronald Reagan Administration, which acted only under pressure from Congress, and Bush said he cannot lift them until congressional conditions are met. These include the release of political prisoners and an end to the state of emergency in the province of Natal.

At a news conference after his White House meeting, Mandela said that he had explained to Bush that the African National Congress scaled down military operations in 1986 to boost negotiations.

“We made it clear that once the government removed all the obstacles to negotiation, we would consider the cessation of hostilities,” Mandela said. “When we explained our position on this point, President Bush appeared to understand our position.”

To move ahead on negotiations, he said, the South African government must release 1,000 political prisoners, return 20,000 political exiles, eventually repeal “repressive” legislation and lift the state of emergency in Natal.

He expressed hope that by the time of the next meeting between the ANC and the South African government, these obstacles, with the exception of the legislation, will have been removed.

The exchanges between Bush and Mandela highlighted the predicament that the South African’s visit created for the President. Bush had the choice of embracing the black leader’s hard-line approach or distancing himself from the many Americans who have expressed their adulation for Mandela.

“He’s at his peak,” an Administration official, speaking anonymously, said of Mandela. “The guy’s riding a wave.”

A senior White House official, also asking anonymity, said that it is not yet clear how Mandela will seek to capitalize on the “outpouring of emotion” that has greeted him.

Mandela is being treated in Washington as a visiting head of state--and an extremely popular one at that. He and Bush posed before scores of photographers; Mandela waved to an applauding crowd on the lawn while his wife, Winnie, gave a clenched-fist salute. The two men met in private in the Oval Office, led their delegations in an expanded meeting in the Cabinet Room and then had lunch together in the White House family dining room.

And when they parted, the tall, gray-haired Mandela said in his distinctive, measured tones: “We narrowed the gaps that previously existed and we regard our visit to the White House as having been successful.”

But moments later, the State Department’s Cohen made it clear that on one of the most sensitive areas Mandela and Bush did not see eye to eye.

“He is refusing to renounce the armed struggle,” Cohen said.

In addition, the official said, the two “agreed to disagree” on such issues as Mandela’s support for Libya, Cuba and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

After the White House visit, Mandela continued his discussions with Secretary of State James A. Baker III. At the State Department, he encountered the first organized hostile demonstration of his tour--a protest by approximately 30 people sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative Washington think tank.

Staff writers Edwin Chen and Don Shannon contributed to this story.