U.S. Won’t Quit Peace Efforts : Gulf crisis: The President says ‘we ought to keep trying down to the wire’ despite ‘a total stiff arm’ by Iraq.

President Bush said today that Iraq met U.S. efforts for a peaceful settlement in the Persian Gulf with “a total stiff arm . . . a total rebuff,” and said it left him discouraged that war could be avoided.

Even so, Bush said he had not given up on peace.

“It isn’t too late,” Bush said.

“I have to level with the American people--nothing I saw today leads me to believe that this man is going to be reasonable,” Bush said.

Even so, he added, “we ought to keep trying, keep trying right down to the wire.”

At a White House news conference, Bush was asked whether he would pledge that the United States would not initiate hostilities to drive Iraq from Kuwait. He answered “No” and said no more.

The President spoke after Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz met for more than six hours in Geneva and reported that neither side had budged on the question of Iraqi withdrawal from occupied Kuwait.

At that session, Aziz refused to accept a letter from Bush to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein spelling out the Administration’s insistence that he get out of Kuwait.

“This is but one more example that the Iraqi government is not interested in direct communications” aimed at a settlement, Bush said. He said Iraq was “stonewalling.”

Once again, Bush said he wants congressional approval of his policy, but he repeated that he does not need it to proceed against Iraq. “I am firmly determined to see that this aggression not stand,” Bush said.

Congress is to open debate Thursday on resolutions dealing with the Persian Gulf, and Bush wants approval of one echoing the United Nations measure that authorizes the use of force unless Iraq gets out by midnight next Monday.

Earlier, Bush prepared for possible war in the Persian Gulf by issuing an executive order giving the government authority to get priority delivery of any needed food or industrial material.

Bush’s order duplicates authority the President had under the Defense Production Act of 1950, which lapsed last October. It gives the government authority to claim first priority on the nation’s productions of a wide range of products, from oil to trucks to machinery.

Bush said the authority will not be used until Defense Secretary Dick Cheney determines prompt delivery of the materials “for the exclusive use of the armed forces of the United States is in the interest of national security,” and until Energy Secretary James D. Watkins makes a similar determination about materials for the atomic energy program.

The President said repeatedly that he still hopes for a peaceful settlement. Asked the basis of that hope, Bush replied:

“I’m not sure I have great hope for it, but I think when human life is at stake you go the extra mile for peace.”