Hussein Ready to Negotiate, French TV Says : Diplomacy: But the Mitterrand government cannot confirm the report. Kuwait refineries are wired with explosives, U.S. sources say.

French television said Friday that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has told President Francois Mitterrand he is ready to discuss Kuwait, but government officials said they could not confirm the report.

And in Washington, Bush Administration sources said the Iraqi invaders have wired Kuwait’s refineries with explosives so they could be blown up if the Iraqis are forced out of the emirate.

The network La Cinq reported in Paris that Hussein sent a letter to Mitterrand ahead of the French leader’s scheduled talks with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Paris on Sunday and Monday.

But a Mitterrand aide said he could “find no trace of a letter” from the Iraqi leader, whose troops took over Kuwait on Aug. 2.

Iraqi Ambassador Abdul Razzak Hashimi said he had no comment on the report or on the French government reaction.

“The Iraqi president said he hoped Francois Mitterrand and Mikhail Gorbachev will spare no effort to find a solution to all the problems of the region, in particular the Palestinian problem,” the television report said.

“He added that he is open to all ideas, to all comments by Mitterrand and Gorbachev on the situation in the region, including the problem of Kuwait.”

It quoted Saddam Hussein as saying: “You will find Iraq ready henceforth to respond positively to the international community to find a just and peaceful solution.”

It said Hussein had reiterated his “initiative of Aug. 12,” which has been rejected by the international community. It calls for a global solution to all major Middle East problems but fails to promise an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.

In Washington, the Administration sources said Iraq has wired Kuwait’s four oil refineries with plastic explosives capable of knocking out the emirate’s entire refining capacity.

Iraq also has placed explosives at other key Kuwaiti oil installations, including pipeline pumping stations, oil-processing centers and oil wells along the Persian Gulf, said the sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified.

The moves appear to be part of a “scorched earth” strategy by Hussein to devastate Kuwait’s economic base in the event his occupying army is forced to withdraw by the U.S.-led multinational forces in the region, the sources said.

Iraq also is removing large quantities of chemicals, pipes, meters and other oil-processing and production materials from storage areas in Kuwait for apparent use in Iraq, the sources said. There is no evidence, however, that the Iraqis are dismantling oil refineries by removing operational parts, the sources said.

Members of the exiled Kuwaiti government have said their country’s oil industry is being severely damaged by Iraqi forces, but few details had come to light.

One Administration source said U.S. spy satellites had provided photographic evidence of Iraqi forces moving Kuwaiti oil industry equipment and materials across the border into Iraq.

“It’s a wholesale cannibalizing,” said one American oil industry source who requested anonymity.

The plastic explosives attached to Kuwait oil facilities would, if detonated, knock out all refining capability for at least six months, the sources estimated. It would take at least two years to get the facilities back to full capacity, they said.

Details about the installation of plastic explosives at refineries and other Kuwaiti oil facilities have come from Kuwaitis who escaped into Saudi Arabia and from released foreign hostages, the Administration source said.