CRISIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF : May Ask U.N. to Back Use of Force, Baker Says : Military: Turkey refuses to join any warfare against Iraq without such authority.

Asserting that “the credibility of the United Nations is at stake” in the Persian Gulf crisis, Secretary of State James A. Baker III told President Turgut Ozal and other Turkish officials Wednesday that Washington soon may ask the Security Council for standby authority to use military force against Iraq.

“It’s very important that when the United Nations takes action . . . that those resolutions and actions be implemented,” Baker told reporters after a two-hour meeting with Ozal.

A senior State Department official said later that the United States has adequate legal authority under the “collective self-defense” provisions of the U.N. Charter to take offensive military action against Iraq but that new Security Council action would “provide a firmer political basis.”

Ozal has said that Turkey will not participate in warfare against Iraq, its neighbor to the south, unless the action is specifically authorized by the United Nations. Earlier this week, he went so far as to say that Turkey is not prepared to launch a “second front” in a U.S.-initiated conflict launched from Saudi Arabia.

Ozal’s determination not to get out in front of the Security Council was underlined by Suleyman Demirel, leader of the opposition True Path Party, who was quoted by the Turkish newspaper Gunaydin: “While war is on the horizon in the gulf, Ozal should not make any promises on behalf of the Turkish nation and state.”

As Baker and Ozal met, Iraq announced that it will free 120 more hostages, most of them Germans, after former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The official Iraqi News Agency reported that 20 of the hostages being freed will be of other nationalities, including Americans, Britons, Italians and others.

The move reflects Baghdad’s “appreciation for the German policy, which does not support trends toward war,” the news agency said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. officials have not yet been notified about plans to free any Americans. But he denounced Iraq’s “cynical bartering” of captive foreigners, who were trapped by Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.

At the same time, 74 Japanese hostages flew to freedom from Iraq aboard a charter flight with former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who had arranged for their release. Iraq had said 77 Japanese were free to go, but three businessmen who had been given permission to leave changed their minds.

In London, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher issued her sternest warning yet to Iraq in a speech to a crowded session of Parliament, declaring: “Time is running out for Saddam Hussein. . . . Either he gets out (of Kuwait) soon, or we and our allies will remove him by force.” In that event, she added, “he will go down to defeat, with all its consequences.”

The senior U.S. official, who talked to reporters aboard Baker’s jetliner on a flight from Ankara to Moscow, said the possibility of additional Security Council action is on the agenda for all of Baker’s stops on his weeklong, seven-nation swing through the Middle East and Europe. But the issue took on additional significance in Turkey because of Ozal’s desire to have U.N. cover for any action by his formidable army against Iraq.

The United States holds the presidency of the Security Council this month under the U.N.’s rotation system, and the senior official said Washington plans to sponsor several new gulf-related resolutions, in addition to the measure providing standby authority for military action while it holds the chair.

Meanwhile, Baker denied a report, first carried by Israel Army Radio, that he had given Iraq an ultimatum to get out of Kuwait within two weeks or face a military assault. The Israeli station, quoting diplomatic sources in Cairo, said Baker discussed the deadline with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen when they met Tuesday at Cairo airport.

In Damascus, a senior U.S. official arrived unexpectedly on Wednesday to brief Syrian leaders on Baker’s current trip. The official, John Kelly, assistant secretary of state for Middle East and South Asian affairs, met with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh to discuss developments in the gulf crisis.

Baker meets today in Moscow with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze. Both the gulf and arms control are on the agenda.

If the United States chooses to ask the Security Council for standby authority to use force, Soviet support would be essential.

Times staff writer William Tuohy, in London, contributed to this story.