Gorbachev Cites Sign of Iraqi Softening, Calls for Continued Peace Efforts in Gulf : Diplomacy: Soviet envoy Primakov’s visit to Baghdad prompts a delay in U.N. action on new sanctions.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, citing hints of a change in the attitude of Iraqi leaders, Saturday urged the worldwide alliance against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein not to panic into war but to keep up the search for a peaceful solution to the Persian Gulf crisis.

The Soviet leader did not detail his evidence for some kind of softening of the Iraqi position, but he told a news conference in the middle of his three-day official visit to Spain: “There are some signs that there is an awareness in the high circles of Iraq that they cannot find a solution through ultimatums. Perhaps I am wrong. In the next few days, perhaps this will be clearer.”

He did not explain why the situation might become clearer then. However, his special envoy Yevgeny Primakov, who has been traveling through Europe and the Middle East in search of a peaceful way out of the crisis, was en route to Baghdad on Saturday on his second visit there in a month.

Primakov’s mission prompted a change in timing at the United Nations in New York, where diplomatic sources said members of the Security Council reached agreement Saturday on a resolution demanding that Iraq permit the resupply of beleaguered embassies in Kuwait city. The resolution would also establish an initial framework for claims against Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait.

Representatives of the 15 council nations were already seated at their circular table, documents in hand and ready to vote on the 10th anti-Iraq resolution since the Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait, when Soviet Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov rushed up to confer with U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, Associated Press reported.

They met privately with the French, British and Chinese ambassadors, and then the Soviets requested a suspension of the vote until Monday.

In Washington, a senior State Department official said the Soviet Union asked for a postponement to give Primakov time for one more attempt to reach a peaceful settlement.

“We don’t need it passed tonight,” the American official said. “As a practical matter, Monday is soon enough.”

Gorbachev hinted that a solution to the gulf crisis might come from the Arab countries themselves.

“Perhaps the moment has come,” he said, “for the Arab world to become fully involved and give its word.”

The recent Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who warned Hussein in a speech Friday not to interpret the search for a diplomatic solution as a sign of weakness or of acceptance of Iraqi aggression against Kuwait, was eloquent in his plea for peace.

Describing the situation in the gulf as “very dangerous,” Gorbachev said: “We must not force a military solution. We cannot say what the consequences of this approach would be. . . . We must not forget that the people of Iraq would be killed--women, children, elderly. It’s not only a question of the team of Saddam Hussein.”

He also noted that the Soviet Union has 3,000 citizens in Iraq, as well.

The Soviet leader left no doubt about his condemnation of the Iraqi aggression. And, even while searching for a peaceful solution, he said, “We must maintain firmness.”

Gorbachev, insisting that there is “no need to panic,” said the alliance against Iraq is controlling the situation. And he warned: “Saddam Hussein is not going to divide us. If he thinks like this, he is very wrong. We are not going to give up our principles on this issue.”

Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, who shared the news conference with Gorbachev, said he agrees completely with the Soviet leader’s position. He added only that he also believes that the United States, while trying to stop Iraqi aggression, “must solve the other problems of the region at the same time.”

This was an obvious attempt by Gonzalez to link the Iraqi crisis with the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a connection rejected by the United States.

On Friday, a Spanish official reported that Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze had indicated a change in Iraq’s position to his Spanish counterpart, Francisco Fernandez Ordonez. Shevardnadze said without elaborating that Iraq is “searching for some kind of dialogue,” according to the Spanish official.

The Soviet and Spanish leaders held their news conference Saturday after signing a series of accords, the most important granting the Soviet Union a $1.5-billion loan from Spain over the next three years. The money will be used to buy Spanish foodstuffs, manufactured products, services and technology.

Gonzalez described the loan as “an investment in perestroika ,” referring to Gorbachev’s restructuring program in the Soviet Union.

Spaniards, who went through a transition from dictatorship to democracy 15 years ago, feel great sympathy for the travails of the Soviets in their own transition.

Calling on this sympathy, Gorbachev told Spanish journalists, “In the last five years, we have started a process of change that has taken other countries centuries to accomplish.

“We have to change our way of life, our economic system, our political processes, and to make these changes, we have to change ourselves.”

But he also said, while discussing the loan: “We are not asking for charity . . . .”

Gorbachev, who will leave for Paris today after touring the site for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and attending various ceremonies there, has enjoyed an enthusiastic reception in Madrid. Many Spaniards clearly look on him as a hero who is leading his country through a transition to democracy much as King Juan Carlos I led Spain in the late 1970s.

The enthusiasm was demonstrated in the heart of the city Saturday morning when Gorbachev, accompanied by his wife Raisa, laid a wreath at the monument for those who lost their lives for Spain.

Hundreds of Spaniards shrieked in delight when the Soviet leader moved into the crowd to shake hands.