GULF WATCH: Day 31 : A daily briefing paper on developments in the crisis.

Diplomatic Front:

President Bush announced that he will meet with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev next Sunday in Helsinki to discuss the Persian Gulf crisis and other issues. Bush also said he saw no evidence that Iraq was ready to respond to world pressure and pull out of Kuwait. In Amman, Jordan, two days of talks between U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz ended sourly with a ringing Iraqi denunciation of the United States and of U.N. resolutions designed to force a withdrawal from conquered Kuwait.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Western women and children flew out of Baghdad to freedom in what was billed as a massive humanitarian airlift by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Military Front:

U.S. forces dig in at new, forward positions. The recent moves closer to the Kuwait and Iraqi borders have both bolstered defensive lines and vastly improved offensive capabilities. Until last week, the United States would have been almost entirely dependent on air firepower tocounter an Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia since most ground forces were in positions about 200 miles from the Saudi-Kuwait border.

More troops continued to arrive in the region. Marine Maj. Gen. John Hopkins said Saturday that the Marine force in Saudi Arabia--now about 15,000 strong--would be tripled within two weeks. More than 100,000 troops, including those aboard dozens of ships, are in the region or on the way.

Trade Front:

Despite President Bush’s assertion that the amount of goods reaching Iraq through Jordan has been reduced to a “trickle,” a new State Department report says there is still heavy traffic using that route in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

Crisis Indicators:

* U.S. troops on the ground: 50,000-plus

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

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

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

* Iraqi troops in/near Kuwait: 265,000

* Iraqi tanks in Kuwait: 1,500

* U.S. diplomats remaining in Kuwait: 11

* Total Americans in Iraq and Kuwait: 2,770

* Total Westerners in Iraq and Kuwait: 11,385

* High temperature in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: 108