GULF WATCH: Day 138 : A daily briefing paper on developments in the crisis : Diplomatic Front:

Secretary of State James A. Baker III told NATO allies that Iraq might partially withdraw from Kuwait as a ploy to divide the coalition arrayed against it. The foreign ministers of the 16 NATO nations then issued a statement reiterating that Iraq must completely and unconditionally withdraw from Kuwait.

President Bush insisted that there will be “no negotiations, no concessions for one inch of territory.”

In Baghdad, Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council said Iraq will not allow the United States to dictate the date of a meeting between Saddam Hussein and Baker, saying to do so would be “surrender.”

Military Front:

Iraqi civil defense officials have opened 342 training centers, the Iraqi media reported. It also said that the Iraqi Defense Ministry has recalled men born in 1957 to boost the mobilization in Kuwait and southern Iraq.

Evacuation Front:

Soviet diplomats began negotiating for the release of at least 2,000 Soviet technicians still in Iraq. Baghdad has demanded that Moscow pay penalties to terminate the contracts of the Soviet workers in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Britain’s ambassador to Kuwait and his consul--the last two Western diplomats in Kuwait--boarded a plane and headed for London. The British Foreign Office also advised the 10,400 British women and children in Bahrain, Qatar and parts of Saudi Arabia to leave before Jan. 15.

The Iraqi Military Deployment:

* Iraqi troops in or near Kuwait: 500,000+

* Tanks deployed: 4,000+

* Artillery pieces deployed: 2,700

* Armored vehicles deployed: 2,500