Ground War Nears as Iraqi Reply Is Awaited : Diplomacy: Baghdad promises an answer ‘soon’ to a Soviet peace proposal. Allies see an attempt to ‘buy time.’

A massive ground attack against Iraqi troops grew imminent Wednesday as time began to run out on Soviet efforts to mediate a peaceful withdrawal of Saddam Hussein’s troops from Kuwait.

Iraqi radio announced that Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz will travel to Moscow “soon” to deliver Hussein’s response to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s peace proposal. But allied officials dismissed such talk as a “desperate” attempt by Iraq to “buy time” to avert a total defeat.

Sources at the United Nations said that if a favorable Iraqi response is received in time, the Security Council might meet today at the request of the Soviet Union. And if Iraq agrees to abide by all 12 of the council’s resolutions on the war, the Soviets might move for a cease-fire.

But statements from both sides Wednesday emphasized preparations for war, not the possibilities of peace.

“One way or another, the army of occupation of Iraq will leave Kuwait--soon,” Secretary of State James A. Baker III declared. “Kuwait will be liberated--soon.”

The U.N. mandate demanding Iraqi withdrawal “is crystal-clear, and there can be no negotiation over its meaning,” said Baker, who made his remarks at a ceremony welcoming Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, here on a state visit.

For its part, Baghdad Radio insisted that Iraq’s army is “impatiently waiting to take on the infidels.”

Officials from France and Iran told reporters in Paris that Moscow has given Iraq until some time today to respond to its peace offer. But Administration officials said that regardless of what deadline the Soviets set, the allied coalition will not delay its war plans.

“By tonight, tomorrow morning . . . what Saddam Hussein says (about the plan) will be immaterial,” said one senior allied official. “We are not interested in dragging this for long.”

A senior aide to British Prime Minister John Major echoed that sentiment. “We are carrying on with our preparations as if this (Soviet) initiative didn’t take place,” the official said. “Of itself, the plan can’t meet the U.N. resolutions. So I don’t think it will have any impact on military decisions.”

Officials said a mere Iraqi pledge to withdraw would not derail the ground campaign and that only an immediate and massive pullout of troops, leaving tanks and other heavy equipment behind, would suffice. An Administration official estimated that if Iraq started such a withdrawal, all its troops could be out of Kuwait in four days.

If no such withdrawal begins, the ground campaign could now start at any time.

White House officials warned that first word of the assault might not reach the United States until many hours after fighting begins. Administration officials believe that Iraqi communications are so badly damaged that Baghdad might not at first have a clear picture of the battle, so they did not plan to make a formal announcement of the ground assault. Instead, they will wait until word filters back from press pool reporters in the field before making any statements.

In Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokesman Vitaly I. Churkin told reporters the Soviet government expects an answer from Iraq regarding the peace initiative quickly--”the sooner the better.” But officials spent Wednesday futilely waiting for word from Baghdad.

Kremlin officials are “waiting hour to hour” for an Iraqi reply, said Valentin M. Falin, the chief of the Communist Party Central Committee’s international affairs department.

Churkin expressed hope for a “clear and positive reply” by Baghdad to the Gorbachev proposals. “The answer will show where we are from the point of view of implementing the plan and settling the Gulf crisis,” he said.

As before, Soviet officials refused to talk in public about the content of Gorbachev’s proposals, but statements by officials of other governments, and a report in the Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, provided some additional speculation.

According to the Soviet newspaper, Gorbachev’s plan would include a “commitment” by Hussein to withdraw troops from Kuwait within a specified time. That commitment would be followed by a cease-fire.

Once the government of Kuwait is restored, the Komsomolskaya Pravda account said, the Soviet Union would propose talks on solving “contentious issues” between Kuwait and Iraq, as well as on the Israeli-Arab conflict. U.S.-led forces would gradually be withdrawn from the Persian Gulf and be replaced either by purely Arab or U.N. peacekeeping troops.

An Italian government official, Cabinet Secretary Nino Cristofori, told reporters the Soviet plan also calls for a guarantee of safe departure for the retreating troops.

According to Baghdad Radio, Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council--Hussein’s top leadership group--met late Wednesday evening and “considered proposals by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who had asked the foreign minister to convey them to the leadership. The RCC decided to send Aziz to Moscow soon carrying the leadership’s reply to Gorbachev’s proposals.”

The report gave no indication of what Iraq meant by soon , or what Baghdad’s response might be to the proposals.

But at U.N. headquarters in New York, Iranian diplomats said Aziz is due back in the Iranian capital today after delivering to Moscow Baghdad’s response to the peace offer. Aziz has been taking an overland route from Baghdad to Tehran, then flying from Tehran to Moscow to avoid the danger of being shot down by allied warplanes over Iraq.

In Paris, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati met with French President Francois Mitterrand and said he “hoped” Hussein would respond to the Soviet appeal “very quickly.” Coalition forces should give the Iraqi leader until today to make his answer known, Velayati said after the 40-minute meeting.

And Jean Lecanuet, chairman of the French Senate’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told reporters after a briefing by Foreign Minister Roland Dumas that Iraq had “24 hours from now” in which to announce a decision. Lecanuet spoke at roughly 8 a.m. PST Wednesday.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar also called on President Bush to give Iraq some time to respond to Gorbachev’s plan before starting a ground offensive.

“I think if they need 24 more hours, it is understandable,” Perez de Cuellar said Wednesday evening. The Soviet plan, he said, is “a unique opportunity.”

But U.S. and allied officials did little to conceal their impatience.

In Paris, for example, French officials, who had commented hopefully on the Soviet plan when it was first released, offered a far more pessimistic assessment after Mitterrand talked with Bush by telephone late Tuesday night.

And in Bonn, a government official speaking on condition of anonymity said Wednesday that the Germans would not consider breaking coalition ranks to back any peace plan that falls short of the U.N. Security Council resolution.

Even in China, which has tried to remain neutral in the war, visiting Iraqi officials received little help.

According to the New China News Agency, Premier Li Peng met for 80 minutes with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Sadoun Hammadi in Beijing and told him the Chinese government would like to see a peaceful end to the crisis but would “demand unconditional withdrawal of the Iraqi troops from Kuwait.”

In a background breakfast meeting with French journalists, President Mitterrand reportedly criticized the “lightweight” nature of the Soviet proposal. Other senior French officials stressed their “enormous mistrust” of any response from Saddam Hussein that does not include an immediate withdrawal on a precise timetable.

“What is not acceptable,” said one senior French government source, “is that the Soviet plan be considered an excuse to delay the withdrawal.”

“Now, more than ever,” said Foreign Minister Dumas, “the ultimate decision rests with Saddam Hussein.”

Lauter reported from Washington and Dahlburg from Moscow. Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Rone Tempest in Paris, William Tuohy in London, William D. Montalbano in Rome, Tamara Jones in Bonn, David Holley in Beijing and John J. Goldman in New York.