Baker Will Ask Allies if They Are Willing to Share Fighting in Gulf : Diplomacy: His mission abroad is to ‘lay the foundation’ for military action if the embargo fails.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, starting a weeklong trip to the Persian Gulf and Europe, said Saturday that he wants to find out if other members of the international coalition will share the fighting if the confrontation with Iraq escalates into war.

“We’ve got some questions we want to propound to some of our coalition partners,” Baker said. “We’d like to know under what conditions and subject to what restraints they would be willing to consider certain types of actions.

“Some questions need to be answered if certain operations are going to be considered.”

He said the purpose of his talks with the leaders of seven nations and the exiled government of Kuwait is to “lay the foundation” for military action to drive Iraq out of Kuwait, should the U.N. trade embargo prove inadequate to do the job.

Although Baker often cloaks his meaning in euphemisms, his comments to reporters, made aboard his jet en route from Washington to a refueling stop in Ireland, are the most direct indication so far that the Bush Administration is actively discussing with its allies the terms for the use of military force in the gulf.

“The overall purpose of this trip is to discuss with our coalition partners strengthening the full range of measures that we have employed to isolate (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein--political measures, economic measures and military measures--and thereby lay the foundation for the possible future exercise of all options,” Baker said.

“This will improve the prospects for a peaceful resolution (of the crisis) and at the same time permit us to be prepared to consider all the options if the peaceful ones don’t work,” he added.

Baker’s first meetings are set for today in Bahrain, the island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia that for more than 40 years has been the home port for the American naval presence in the gulf.

Later, Baker will meet with kings, presidents and prime ministers in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, the Soviet Union, Britain and France before returning to Washington next Saturday.

Although Baker insisted that the United States hopes the trade embargo and other political and economic measures will ultimately force Iraq to end its occupation of Kuwait, he made it clear that Washington is not willing to wait forever. U.S. officials have said that the embargo has begun to cause real economic pain in Iraq but that Hussein appears able to hold out for months, if not years.

Baker declined to give a time frame for U.S. action, but he said additional steps are being considered “in the short term.”

From a purely military standpoint, the United States apparently could initiate combat with Iraq on its own. About two-thirds of the military personnel in the international coalition are Americans. But Baker made it clear that the Administration wants to make sure its allies will go along if war breaks out.

“The President has said on several occasions that in moving to deal with this problem, he would like to maintain as much of the international consensus as he can,” Baker said. “His actions to date certainly make that very clear.”

As part of the effort to maintain the consensus, Baker said the Administration may ask the U.N. Security Council to specifically authorize the use of force--although he said such a step is not necessary as a matter of international law. He repeated the Administration’s position that Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, permitting “collective self-defense,” provides all the authorization that would be needed.

Baker said he will discuss the U.N. option with leaders of the four other permanent members of the Security Council during this trip. He will visit the Soviet Union, Britain and France, and he plans to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen in Cairo.

Some of the allies clearly are more eager to use force than others. For instance, President Turgut Ozal of Turkey has said his country would participate militarily against Iraq only if the action is specifically authorized by the Security Council.

Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, would be invaluable in any armed confrontation with Iraq because of its strategic location on Iraq’s northern border.