CRISIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF : Forget Kuwait Existed, Iraqi Official Asserts : Policy: But a former Japanese leader sees Hussein and says he has been earnest in seeking peace.

The Iraqi government told the world Sunday to forget that there was a country called Kuwait.

Information Minister Latif Jasim, briefing foreign correspondents, ruled out the possibility of withdrawal from any part of the emirate no matter what the consequences.

“I want to tell you as a member of the leadership, we will never go out of Kuwait, ever,” he said, measuring his words.

“The whole world should forget something called the emirate of Kuwait. They should speak about ‘a province called Kuwait’ and act accordingly.

“We are going to defend our 19th province on any condition, even if we have to fight a dangerous war,” he said.

The new Iraqi vow to keep Kuwait at all costs came only hours after a former Japanese prime minister, Yasuhiro Nakasone, met with Saddam Hussein and said the Iraqi president has demonstrated “great earnestness and seriousness” about seeking peace.

Nakasone’s visit, aimed at winning the release of Japanese hostages, came as Japanese lawmakers were considering a plan to send troops to the Persian Gulf to join the multinational force arrayed against Iraq.

The troop-deployment proposal has drawn strong criticism from those who say it would violate Japan’s postwar peace constitution, even though the troops would be confined to noncombat roles.

Iraq’s official news agency said Nakasone has told Hussein that it is unlikely lawmakers will approve the proposal.

First Deputy Prime Minister Taha Yassin Ramadan told Nakasone:

“The power and combat readiness of Iraqis, together with all the Arabs who volunteered to defend their legitimate rights, is increasing in proportion to the escalation of war rhetoric by the American Administration.”

Meanwhile, four American ex-hostages were on their way home a day after being freed, and 15 Europeans arrived in Jordan after being released by the Iraqis. They were among thousands of foreigners who were trapped in Iraq and Kuwait when Saddam Hussein’s troops overran the emirate Aug. 2.

Three of the four Americans freed by Iraq on Saturday flew into London Sunday night on their way home. A U.S. Embassy official in Jordan said the fourth--Michael Barner, 49, of Woodsworth, La.--made other, private arrangements for returning home.

Former hostages Dr. Abdul Hamid Kangi, 50, an Indian-born American from Glencoe, Ill.; Randall Trinh, 49, of Hacienda Heights, Calif., and Raymond Gales, a diplomat from the besieged U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, were met at Heathrow airport by U.S. officials from the London embassy.

The Europeans freed by Iraq on Sunday were 14 Germans and one Belgian, all men. The German Embassy said the men were granted exit visas after their work contracts ended.

In Belgium, Foreign Minister Mark Eyskens complained that efforts by individual nations to win their citizens’ freedom are eroding unity against Iraq.

“Saddam is creating this royal court of all sorts of Western pilgrims who visit him to obtain the release of hostages,” Eyskens said in a television interview in Brussels.

Sometimes the visitors “let themselves be lured into political discussions” with Hussein, which could “jeopardize the united stand against Saddam’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait,” he said.

Belgium has requested a special European Community meeting on the matter Tuesday or Wednesday in Rome.

The European Community had already tried to discourage a hostage-freeing bid by former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who is to leave for Baghdad today. Like Nakasone’s trip, Brandt’s is a private mission with government backing.

French President Francois Mitterrand, who met Sunday in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak, said he hopes that the gulf crisis does not escalate to military action.

“The powerful countries have to strictly enforce the (economic and political) embargo to avoid . . . a destructive war,” he said, referring to U.N. sanctions against Iraq. Mubarak agreed, saying sanctions are the best means of averting bloodshed.

A diplomatic source said Mubarak expressed his concern to Mitterrand that countries such as Iraq are still using force to achieve their aims and told the French leader that the international community should shoulder its collective responsibility in rejecting aggression and making sure that it doesn’t pay.

Iraq has picked out France as a country it describes as adopting a less-hostile stance toward Baghdad in the gulf crisis, and last week unilaterally freed about 300 French hostages.

In London, about 50 wives of British hostages held in Iraq received telephone calls from their husbands Sunday. Some of the men asked their spouses to join them for Christmas. Iraqi authorities last week offered to allow wives of foreign hostages to spend the holiday with their husbands.

The women said their husbands spoke of living near open cesspools and of losing weight because of meager rations.

Members of Britain’s Gulf Support Group, which has been assisting families of hostages, said the telephone calls were made under Iraqi pressure and amounted to emotional blackmail.

The Baghdad government, in stressing its willingness to fight, announced Sunday that it is recalling some retired army officers to duty. It did not say how many.

Iraq has an estimated 430,000 troops in southern Iraq and Kuwait, confronting about 300,000 troops in the U.S.-dominated multinational force in the gulf region.

About 2,500 Syrian troops arrived in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, joining an estimated 4,000 Syrians already deployed as part of the multinational effort. They brought with them about 150 tanks, the first armor Syria has sent.