GULF WATCH: Day 111 : A daily briefing paper on developments in the crisis : Military Front:

Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Pentagon officials are “not terribly concerned” about Iraq’s announcement that it will send another 250,000 troops to Kuwait since those additional troops would probably be less capable than those already there. Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams added that it is too early to know whether Iraq’s announcement would lead to more U.S. troop deployments. “We have not seen any evidence of (Iraq’s) alleged deployment,” he said.

Diplomatic Front:

Four U.N. Security Council members reportedly were asking for consideration of alternatives to war. Colombia, Cuba, Malaysia and Yemen said the council should continue to insist on Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, but give Baghdad an idea of what it could expect afterward. Talk of a “war option,” they said, increases the risk of war as well as the risk of ignoring any diplomatic signals from Iraq.

President Bush mounted a full-court press at the Paris summit to win Soviet support for a tough new United Nations resolution authorizing military action against Iraq. But Administration officials said success still is not within their immediate grasp. Secretary of State James A. Baker III met late into the night with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

In Washington, a group of 45 Democratic lawmakers filed a lawsuit to try to force President Bush to seek authority from Congress before ordering a U.S. military attack.

Hostage Front:

All German hostages still in Iraq and Kuwait are to be allowed to go home, some of them in two days’ time. Iraq President Saddam Hussein proposed their release as a reward for the stand taken by German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who has been urging a negotiated settlement.

Hussein met in Baghdad with delegations from France and Switzerland and told them that more Europeans will be allowed to leave, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.

Forces in the Persian Gulf:

U.S. troops: 240,000

Saudi troops: 117,700

Iraqi forces in/near Kuwait: 430,000

Iraqi tanks in/near Kuwait: 4,800