GULF WATCH: Day 25 : A daily briefing paper on developments in the crisis.

Diplomatic Front:

Hopes for a diplomatic settlement were raised Sunday as the U.N. secretary general’s office announced an impending meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar will meet with Aziz on Thursday in Amman, Jordan, for “a full exchange of views on the crisis.”

Meanwhile, defiant Western diplomats held out in Kuwait despite Iraqi orders to leave and cutoffs of electricity and water to the embassies. Iraq allowed 52 dependents of personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait to head for freedom in Turkey, but turned three others back at the border, and continued to round up more Westerners in Kuwait.

Jordan’s King Hussein, spearheading Arab efforts to avert a Persian Gulf war, left for a tour of North Africa, and diplomats said he would also go to Britain and West Germany.

Military Front:

Soldiers from 50 more Army Reserve and National Guard units were called up to assist in Operation Desert Shield, the Pentagon announced one day after calling up more than 100 naval reserve units.

The Pentagon also announced that Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf has established his command headquarters in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, part of the Army’s 13th Corps Support Command from Ft. Hood,Tex., wasarriving in the Middle East to join more than 40,000 U.S. troops already on the ground.

Trade Front:

OPEC oil ministers began emergency talks in Vienna and were expected to approve a temporary increase in oil output to offset losses caused by the crisis in the gulf. Representatives from all the 13 member nations except Iraq and Libya were present.

OPEC, which pumps about 40% of the world’s crude oil, controls prices by regulating production. Venezuelan Oil Minister Celestino Armas proposed not only increased oil production, but also the release of strategic oil reserves held by the United States and other countries.

Crisis Indicators:

* Iraqi troops in Kuwait: 160,000

* Iraqi tanks in Kuwait: 1,000

* U.S. troops on the ground: 40,000

* U.S. troops en route: 60,000

* U.S. sailors aboard ships in region: 35,000

* U.S. ships in the region or en route: 70

* U.S. reservists to be mobilized: up to 49,703

* U.S. aircraft in region: 500

* U.S. diplomats and dependents held in Iraq: 55

* Other Americans detained in Iraq and Kuwait: 56

* U.S. diplomats remaining in Kuwait: 10

* Total Americans in Iraq and Kuwait: 2,945

* Total Westerners in Iraq and Kuwait: 12,000