U.N. Chief Meets Aziz in Baghdad : Diplomacy: Perez de Cuellar arrives in the Iraqi capital shortly after the U.S. Embassy closes its doors. He expects to see Hussein today.

Two faces of the fading hopes for Persian Gulf peace virtually crossed paths at Baghdad’s airport Saturday as U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar arrived here to begin a last-ditch effort to avert war and the last official U.S. representatives departed, their diplomatic efforts ended.

Perez de Cuellar disembarked from his official jet at sunset for an expected meeting with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein today, two days before the U.N. Security Council’s deadline of Jan. 15 for Iraq to pull out of Kuwait.

Only six hours earlier, half a dozen American diplomats, led by Charge d’Affaires Joseph C. Wilson IV, abandoned Baghdad, boarding a chartered Iraqi jet bound for Frankfurt, Germany. The embassy’s offices, contained in two buildings in the Masbah district on the banks of the Tigris River, were left in the care of the embassy’s 100 Iraqi staff members, officials said.

Perez de Cuellar told television reporters at the airport that he had “come to talk with the Iraqi authorities about the prospects of peace,” but he denied that he was carrying a formula to avert war.

“No. I don’t have any specific proposal,” he said. “What I have is specific goodwill and a wish for a peaceful solution. I am also convinced that I bring with me the wish of the international community for a peaceful solution.”

Perez de Cuellar said that the length of his visit to Baghdad depends on the Iraqi government. He was greeted at the airport by Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz, and the two men met again later Saturday and afterward continued their discussions over dinner, according to officials traveling with Perez de Cuellar.

Iraq announced that its rubber-stamp National Assembly would be convened Monday, the eve of the U.N. deadline. No explanation was given for the meeting, but in December, the assembly ratified Hussein’s decision to release foreign hostages.

As Perez de Cuellar traveled from New York through Europe to Baghdad, several formulas were mentioned in European and Arab capitals as possible ways to persuade Hussein to pull out of Kuwait without a fight.

The principal elements of these formulas included, besides Iraq’s withdrawal, monitoring of the withdrawal by a U.N. peacekeeping force, the pullout of military forces of the United States and its allies from their staging areas in Saudi Arabia, and the possibility of an international conference to deal with other Middle East problems, notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

An aide to Perez de Cuellar termed such an outline strictly speculative, but he said that Perez de Cuellar would deal with “substantive issues” in his talks with Hussein.

Iraq in the past has said that the only chance of its compromising on the issue of Kuwait would be for Israel to simultaneously end its occupation of the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip.

Observers among the dwindling corps of diplomats here doubted that the U.N. chief’s visit would produce a breakthrough. Perez de Cuellar, they noted, is bound by the framework of unconditional U.N. resolutions. To go beyond them would require action of the Security Council.

“He is a prominent figure who is not prominent,” said an Asian diplomat. “He is secretary general, accent on the secretary. He works for others.”

Perez de Cuellar is familiar with Iraqi diplomatic terrain. In 1988, he brokered a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq that effectively ended their 8-year war.

That success might give him some advantage in dealing with Hussein, although Iraqi officials say they view his performance during the current Persian Gulf crisis as hostile. “He has lost credibility with us,” a government spokesman said.

Iraqi state television played down the U.N. chief’s visit, presenting it only after reporting on meetings held by Hussein with President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization, showing Hussein being interviewed by Italian television, transmitting Hussein’s session with his ruling Revolutionary Command Council, and showing the visit to Baghdad by former President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.

The charter flight that carried the last American diplomats out of Baghdad also carried about 40 other passengers, including three American news correspondents, four other American citizens and a collection of other Western diplomats and foreigners.

About 100 American citizens now remain in Iraq, most of them members of Iraqi families who are staying voluntarily.

“Despite the crisis, we would like to come back, we would like to repair U.S. relations with Iraq,” Wilson said at the airport.

In private, some of the U.S. diplomats were less discreet in their remarks. “We’re going to bury the Iraqis so deep they’re going to need to patch in light,” one said. “If you stay,” he advised reporters, “you’ll die.”

Wilson dealt with a number of complex problems as he sat in for Ambassador April Glasspie, who departed on vacation just before Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait and never returned.