U.S. to Scale Back Weapons Package for Saudi Arabia : Gulf crisis: A $22-billion arms sale will be split into two smaller proposals. The move is meant to allay concerns about upsetting the Mideast’s balance of power.

The White House, responding to congressional concerns about a new Middle East arms race in the making, agreed Friday to scale back a proposed emergency sale of planes, tanks and other sophisticated military hardware to Saudi Arabia.

Instead of submitting to Congress a single arms deal totaling as much as $22 billion, the Bush Administration intends to seek immediate approval of a smaller package including only those weapons urgently needed by the Saudi government to counter possible Iraqi aggression.

The remainder of the package, expected to consist of fighter jets, tanks and other weaponry that would be delivered over a period of years, will be referred to lawmakers in a second proposal sometime next year.

“The specific items to be provided in the first phase are still being determined and will encompass equipment and training requiring early (congressional) action,” the White House said in a statement. “This request will be sent to the Congress early next week.”

The decision represents a significant concession by the Administration to mounting concerns within Congress about the potential impact of a massive Saudi arms sale on the balance of power in the Middle East. A number of lawmakers, meeting with Administration officials in closed-door sessions, had proposed dividing the package into two pieces.

In announcing its intention to submit the Saudi arms sale proposal in two phases, the White House gave no indication of the size of each portion or the value of the combined package. Administration officials have said that the original proposal advanced by the Pentagon called for the sale of $18 billion to $22 billion in arms.

Despite its willingess to accommodate lawmakers’ desire to consider the Saudis’ short-term and long-term weapons needs in separate installments, the White House made clear that it will continue to press for approval of the entire arms package.

“In both cases, we believe that it is essential that the United States be able and willing to provide the Saudi Arabian armed forces with the weapons and training it needs to deter and defend itself against aggression,” the White House statement said. “Such support constitutes a key dimension of our overall strategy toward the Persian Gulf and could serve as well to protect American lives.”

Meanwhile, with the crisis in the Persian Gulf moving into its eighth week, U.S. officials said they see no sign that international pressure has weakened Saddam Hussein’s determination to hold onto Kuwait. Administration officials braced members of Congress to prepare for a protracted siege.

“Sanctions remain our strategy for resolving this crisis” and they “are going to take some time to work,” President Bush said at a brief news conference held before he left Washington for a weekend at his Camp David, Md., retreat.

Bush declined to rule out an American first strike against Iraq, citing the treatment of U.S. hostages and the possibility of Iraqi-sponsored terrorism as among the “universally heralded markers” that could bring a U.S. military response.

“We hold Saddam Hussein responsible if there is any terrorist act against us,” Bush said. But, he quickly added, he does “not want to send . . . (a) signal that I’m shifting more toward” a military response.

Said one White House official, “The feeling around here is we are still a long way from war.” But, he added, despite extensive intelligence about the situation in the Middle East, Administration officials remain stymied in trying to guess what Hussein will do next.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman David L. Boren (D-Okla.) echoed that concern.

“We have a real worry as to whether anybody around (Hussein) has the capability of . . . delivering the bad news,” to him, Boren said. “We just don’t see any signs at this point that he’s listening.”

At the same time, he said, U.S. allies in the Middle East who are pressing for a quick military solution to the crisis are “underestimating our staying power.” With the U.S.-led effort continuing to receive extensive international support, the Administration seems prepared for a long-term campaign of economic sanctions against Iraq, he added.

At his news conference, Bush denied reports that Iraq had begun sending loaded oil tankers to Iran in an attempt to evade the international economic blockade.

“There may be some leakage in terms of food across the border, but generally speaking, it looks like Iran is doing what Iran has represented . . . to a lot of countries that they would do, and that is to apply the sanctions,” Bush said.

U.S. officials repeatedly have said Iran could become a major loophole in the sanctions network if the Tehran government decides to aid Iraq. So far, however, there is no clear sign that the Iranians have decided to do so, officials said.

With diplomacy still the order of the day, the Administration plans another round of meetings next week with key international leaders to keep the anti-Iraq coalition together.

One key step is likely to be a vote by the U.N. Security Council to expand the current blockade of Iraqi commerce to cover airplanes. The U.N. Security Council on Friday ended a week of backstage wrangling over imposing an air embargo on Iraq by deciding to put the matter off until Tuesday.

Soviet Ambassador Yuli M. Vorontsov, the council president, said he will convene the 15 members “with the understanding” that the meeting will be presided over by Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

He said he hopes that a majority of the 15 members will be represented at the foreign minister level. The last time foreign ministers attended a Security Council meeting was on Sept. 26, 1985, for a ceremonial session commemorating the United Nations’ 40th anniversary.

The State Department said Secretary James A. Baker III can be expected to attend Tuesday, along with Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd of Britain and Foreign Ministers Roland Dumas of France and Qian Qichen of China.

Bush, meanwhile, plans to meet Tuesday with Turkish President Turgut Ozal. Turkey is one of the most important countries in the sanctions effort because it controls one of Iraq’s two oil export pipelines and because its long border with Iraq could become an important route for smuggling of food and other goods into Baghdad.

Bush has spoken repeatedly with Ozal since the crisis began and has promised considerable aid to the Turks to cushion the economic losses the country is incurring by cutting off Iraq’s oil flow.

Later in the week, Bush will travel to New York, where he will give a speech to the United Nations. While there, he plans to meet with Shevardnadze and Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu.

The meeting with Shevardnadze is expected to focus both on the gulf situation and the remaining hurdles blocking progress on arms limitation treaties.

Times staff writer Don Shannon, at the United Nations, contributed to this report.