Nations, Firms Itching to Do Business With Iraq : Global economy: In messages both public and private, they let it be known that they are eager to resume lucrative deals with Baghdad once the gulf crisis is ended.

An odd counterpoint to the grim march toward next month’s war ultimatum is the optimistic urge among Iraq’s global economic partners to ensure that, after the Persian Gulf crisis ends, they will be able to resume lucrative business deals that developed here during the past decade.

The hopes, expressed both publicly and in private messages from businesses and governments, are perhaps the only glimmer on the otherwise gray horizon of Iraqi foreign relations.

Given the apocalyptic scenario painted by both Washington and Baghdad in the event the conflict over Kuwait turns into full-scale war, it has been difficult to imagine making plans for the future. The United Nations has set a Jan. 15 deadline for Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait and authorized the use of military force after that date to liberate the sheikdom.

Indications that there may be life after the crisis are important to Iraq, diplomats speculate, and might encourage Baghdad to compromise on its decision to hold on to Kuwait at all costs.

The optimistic ones among foreign observers here believe that Iraq’s primary concern is no longer to keep Kuwait, but to survive the crisis intact--this despite the unbroken string of defiant announcements that Iraq will never abandon what it has designated as its 19th province.

“Iraq will not budge if it believes it is going to be destroyed no matter what it does,” said a Western diplomat here. “There must be some sign that its relations abroad can be normalized.”

A few soothing messages from abroad have come to light in recent days. Toshiki Kaifu, the Japanese prime minister, sent a personal letter to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein urging him to obey the U.N. Security Council order and retreat from Kuwait.

Kaifu included in his message a promise that Japan would resume its “previous cooperative relationship” with Iraq once the crisis has dissipated.

A visiting Soviet delegation is discussing the issue of Soviet technicians who, because of the contracts they signed with Baghdad, have not yet been allowed to leave despite the threat of war. But the meetings are also laying the groundwork for future economic relations between the two countries, Eastern European diplomats say.

The delegation from Moscow includes the head of the Soviet Foreign Ministry’s Middle East department, the deputy chairman of the governing Council of Ministers and the deputy minister of oil and gas.

Part of the dealings involve a joint agreement for up to 600 Soviet technicians to stay in Iraq despite the danger and the effects of the U.N. embargo on trade with the country. The Soviets “welcomed Iraq’s decision to allow Soviet experts to leave or stay in the country as they wish,” said a communique issued after the most recent meeting.

Earlier this month, Iraq had indicated that the Soviets must fulfill their contracts. But 900 Soviet workers have flown home during the past week, leaving about 1,400 in the country.

The economies of Turkey and Iraq are tightly bound, and both countries have sent messages of assurance that long-range relations can be friendly once the crisis is over, diplomats say. Iraq is especially eager to reduce tensions with Turkey: In the event of war, its neighbor might serve as a springboard for a U.S.-led attack from the north. Also, the sources of one of Iraq’s main rivers lie in Turkey. With a new dam that was completed in the fall, Turkey can literally turn off the tap that would affect much of Iraq’s water supply.

“Iraq is mad at Turkey, but in the long run, it must promote good relations,” said an Arab diplomat.

Before its Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq had offered a rare Third World bonanza for industrialized countries.

During its eight-year war with Iran, Iraq was a major international weapons purchaser. It bought millions of dollars of arms from the Soviet Union as well as France and the United States. Over the years, it has tried to buy the means of producing chemical weapons--from Germany and Switzerland--and nuclear weapons--notably from France.

Baghdad also has bought missiles from the Soviet Union, China and Argentina.

After the Iran-Iraq War, Baghdad engaged in a hasty scheme meant to rebuild an economy strained by the drawn-out conflict and to dive headlong into industrialization. It dusted off ambitious development plans, and several European countries along with Japan rushed to help finance and participate in them.

A contract for a new $1.5-billion oil refinery to supply fuel to Baghdad and central Iraq was set to be signed early in 1991. Japan and Italy were to provide designs and equipment, and Czechoslovakia skilled labor.

Japanese companies were helping modernize Iraqi telecommunications and along with Italy were constructing a new oil pipeline that would pass through Saudi Arabia.

European countries, notably France, Italy and Germany, modernized power plants, oil pipelines and steel mills. The Soviet Union was involved in developing oil fields and updating power plants.

The United States was a relative latecomer to the Iraqi market, but Washington had signaled an intention to compete by participating in the November, 1991, Baghdad trade fair, especially in development of Iraqi oil production.

The bulk of U.S. exports to Iraq during 1989, the last year for which full data is available, consisted of agricultural goods, mainly wheat. In 1989, the United States exported $1.2 billion worth of products to Iraq and imported $2.4 billion in oil.

Even less-developed countries found a place in the Iraqi sun. Turkey, Yugoslavia and India won contracts for road, bridge and dam projects and, along with poorer nations like Egypt and Bangladesh, exported cheap labor to work on them.

“It is hard for countries doing business with Iraq to just turn away,” said a European economist. “Everybody would like to come back.”

Iraq was something of a 1980s rarity among Third World countries. Unlike most Latin American and African countries, it had money to invest, or at least a steady source of oil income to help finance big projects.

“The war with Iran left Iraq running behind the other gulf states,” said a Western European diplomat.

Iraq’s vision of itself as a kind of Ruhr Valley of the Arab world also led to headlong efforts to industrialize with all the latest technology--a windfall to eager Western and Japanese traders. “Even the Soviets would sublet contracts to Western firms in order to satisfy the Iraqi demand for the latest,” said the West European diplomat.

Thousands of foreign businessmen and workers fled Iraq after Saddam Hussein decided to set them free rather than detain them as a shield against attack. Now, individual companies, regardless of their home country’s stand on the gulf crisis, are finding ways of signaling a willingness to return.

Businessmen are phoning government contacts to discuss how to resume operations and negotiate the terms of possible penalties they might incur for late work, diplomats say. Some have left a skeleton staff of local employees to staff their offices rather than close.

“These are signs of good faith,” said a Western diplomat. “Some companies spent 20 years trying to build a working relationship here. They don’t want to throw it away in a couple months.”