Bush Issues Ultimatum to Iraq : Warns of Land War if Pullout Doesn’t Begin Today : Diplomacy: President accuses Hussein regime of setting Kuwait oil wells ablaze in a ‘scorched earth policy.’ Baghdad brands his message as ‘shameful.’

President Bush on Friday gave Iraq until noon EST today to begin an “immediate and unconditional withdrawal” of its troops from Kuwait and seven days to complete it--or face the start of a ground war.

Iraq said the Bush ultimatum was “shameful” and gave no indication that President Saddam Hussein would comply.

With the shadow of an ever-closer ground assault hanging over the Persian Gulf, Bush accused the Iraqis of torching Kuwaiti oil wells in a “scorched earth policy” of warfare. Hussein’s ruling Revolutionary Command Council denied the charge.

The Soviet Union, playing to the hilt its new role of middleman between Hussein and Bush, announced in Moscow that Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz has agreed at the Kremlin to still another new plan for peace. The Soviets said this plan was awaiting final approval by Hussein.

The new Soviet-Iraqi proposal would commit Hussein to “an immediate and unconditional withdrawal” from Kuwait starting one day after a cease-fire. Instead of Bush’s seven days, it would give Iraq three weeks to complete the pullout. The plan calls for an agreement to lift all U.N. resolutions against Iraq when the pullout is finished.

Bush was asked about this counterproposal to his high noon (9 a.m. PST) deadline as he bounded toward a Marine Corps helicopter taking him and Secretary of State James A. Baker III to Camp David, Md., for the weekend.

“We’re just talking about it,” he replied. “Don’t know yet.”

His spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said later: “If they (the Iraqis) can meet the Russian plan, they can meet the coalition plan. Our plan is the marker to meet. It (the counterproposal) doesn’t quite meet our conditions. . . .

“It’s a hard and fast date. Noon tomorrow. It’s an ultimatum.”

Bush’s deadline met with strong approval from key Western and Arab allies in the anti-Iraq coalition, including Britain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas said the Bush ultimatum was the result of consultation among the allies. British Prime Minister John Major declared: “Iraq now knows precisely what it has to do.”

Saudi and Kuwaiti officials expressed relief. Without the ultimatum, they had feared that the war would drag on for weeks longer.

The Bush deadline came early in a day of tense diplomacy as proposals and counterproposals seesawed between Washington and Moscow. Baghdad’s immediate response came in a statement read by a spokesman for Iraq’s ruling Revolutionary Command Council.

It condemned Bush as an “enemy of God.”

“We confirm that Iraq wants peace and is working seriously to support the Soviet initiative and facilitate its success, but not out of fear of Bush’s threats,” the council statement declared.

Responding to Bush’s charges of destruction in Kuwait, it called for the U.N. Security Council to form a neutral committee “to inspect the damage in Kuwait and Iraq at large. . . .”

At the United Nations, there was no immediate response to the request.

In Washington

Bush first outlined his ultimatum in a meeting with advisers that broke up at about midnight EST Thursday, then began reviewing it again shortly after returning to his office at 6:45 a.m.

Waiting for him in his study next to the Oval Office was his national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, who had spent much of the night at the White House working on the ultimatum and the details of several accompanying conditions.

During the morning, Bush made a round of telephone calls. He spoke with French President Francois Mitterrand, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and British Prime Minister Major.

Then, at 10:42 a.m., looking grim, he met with reporters in the White House Rose Garden.

“The coalition will give Saddam Hussein until noon Saturday to do what he must do--begin his immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait,” the President said, standing on colonnade steps overlooking the garden in warm winter sunshine. “We must hear publicly and authoritatively his acceptance of these terms.”

He accused Hussein of launching his “scorched earth policy against Kuwait anticipating perhaps that he will now be forced to leave. . . . He is wantonly setting fires to and destroying the oil wells, the oil tanks, the export terminals and other installations of that small country,” Bush said. “Indeed, they are destroying the entire oil production system of Kuwait.”

The President left it to Fitzwater, his spokesman, to provide reporters with details of the conditions.

Fitzwater suggested that Hussein communicate his acceptance of the conditions to the United Nations.

The conditions are that Iraq:

Remove all of its forces from Kuwait city within 48 hours after the noon deadline.

Comply with the release of all prisoners of war on both sides within the first 48 hours.

Allow for the prompt return of the legitimate government of Kuwait.

Withdraw its forces within one week from the Saudi-Kuwaiti and Saudi-Iraqi borders, from Bubiyan and Warba islands in the Persian Gulf near the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border and from Kuwait’s Rumaila oil field--which straddles the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border.

Remove all explosives or booby traps, including those it placed on Kuwaiti oil installations, and name Iraqi military officers to work with Kuwait and other forces on the operational details related to Iraq’s withdrawal.

Provide the locations and nature of the more than half a million mines it has sown both in the Gulf and in the Kuwaiti desert.

Yield control of Kuwaiti airspace and cease all flights over Iraq and Kuwait except for transport flights carrying withdrawing troops.

Cease all destructive acts against Kuwaiti citizens and property.

Release all Kuwaitis in detention.

Fitzwater said the United States and its partners would not attack retreating forces.

But he added: “Any breach of these terms will bring an instant and sharp response from coalition forces.”

During the week that Bush would allow the Iraqis to withdraw, Fitzwater said, “they probably could not get all their equipment out.”

“In which case,” he added, “they ought to leave it.”

Military officials said allied forces would bombard Iraqi troops up to the moment the coalition is satisfied that a withdrawal has begun.

“I don’t see any cause at all for any kind of pause before the time that they actually start to move,” Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Kelly, operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon.

As for their armament and equipment, Kelly said, “what they don’t get out in seven days they don’t get out.”

He estimated that the Iraqis have somewhat fewer than 3,000 tanks in Kuwait that have not been “knocked out.” Those, he said, plus operational tanks with the Republican Guard in southern Iraq, would leave the Iraqis with enough firepower “to cause concern in that region of the world.”

But, he said, how many tanks and artillery pieces the Iraqis actually retrieve would depend on their skill and how many had not broken down for lack of maintenance.

“We just don’t know,” Kelly said.

He said the Iraqis also might be able to retrieve some artillery rounds loaded with poison gas. But they would degenerate over time, he said, and since all Iraqi chemical production facilities have been destroyed, the rounds cannot be replaced.

Fitzwater said Bush’s ultimatum and the details of its accompanying conditions were handed to Iraqi diplomats in Washington at about noon EST on Friday. If Iraq accepts the terms and “authoritatively communicates that acceptance to the United Nations” by noon today, he said, “a ground campaign will not be initiated against Iraqi forces.”

The spokesman was asked by reporters what would happen if that acceptance was not given.

“I’d think back to Jan. 15, if I were you,” he replied. That was the deadline set by the United Nations for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait or face the use of force. A massive air war against Iraq began the first night after the deadline expired.

Fitzwater was asked what would be in it for Hussein if he complied with Bush’s deadline.

“A chance to save his country,” the spokesman replied.

Referring to the Soviet-Iraqi proposal that U.N. resolutions against Iraq be lifted, Fitzwater noted that only the Security Council could do that.

“The world needs to be assured in concrete terms of Iraq’s peaceful intentions before such action can be taken,” he said. “In a situation where sanctions are lifted, Saddam Hussein could simply revert to using his oil resources once again--not to provide for the well-being of his people, but instead to rearm.”

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, speaking to a group of high school students in Washington, outlined the Administration’s objections to a Soviet-Iraqi peace proposal offered Thursday, which also called for a withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait after a cease-fire so long as there was agreement to lift U.N. resolutions.

Cheney called the proposal “deficient in many respects.”

A cease-fire before withdrawal begins is “unacceptable,” the defense secretary said, because it “would simply allow Saddam Hussein to regroup his forces, to resupply them, perhaps to continue the conflict, and ultimately that could lead to an even higher casualty rate on the allied side.”

Cheney also rejected that proposal’s suspension of economic sanctions against Iraq before all of its forces were removed from Kuwait--because resuming the flow of oil revenue would let Baghdad rearm and again threaten its neighbors.

He said the Administration adamantly opposes a provision of the proposal dropping a U.N. demand that Iraq pay reparations for damage done to Kuwait.

In Moscow

The diplomatic day in Moscow began with an appearance on Soviet television by Yevgeny M. Primakov, who is Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s personal envoy to the Middle East. He said the United States should think better than to start ground action. He characterized the Soviet peace process as ongoing.

“If the ground war begins today,” Primakov said, “the whole world will see that the Soviet Union made great strides in trying to find a political settlement. It (a political settlement) is really being outlined. And if this is disrupted, those who start the (ground) war will be responsible.”

Then, at an afternoon briefing, Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Vitaly I. Churkin expanded on that theme. The eight points in the proposal announced by the Soviets on Friday, he said, were not a finished peace plan.

“They are history already,” Churkin told reporters.

“They were points that represented a certain status in Soviet-Iraqi talks here in Moscow. And then, under the instructions of President Gorbachev, the talks continued this morning and some progress has been made with those eight points as a point of departure. . . .

“Some people understood that it was a kind of Soviet-Iraqi joint plan, and it was not,” Churkin said. “It was simply a point to which we, if you will, had brought the Iraqi side in the process of our talks with them.”

During much of the day, Iraqi Foreign Minister Aziz huddled with Primakov and Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh. At a late night news conference, Ignatenko, the Soviet president’s spokesman, said the trio had reached agreement on still another plan, comprised of six points this time.

Ignatenko said a text of the six points had been sent to Baghdad by way of “Soviet communication channels” for final approval and reached President Hussein at 6 p.m., Moscow time.

“We expect an answer during the night or tomorrow morning,” Ignatenko said.

He said Gorbachev had just finished discussing the plan with Bush in a “very long, very interesting” 90-minute conversation.

The conversation came after Bush’s high-noon ultimatum.

“The U.S. President thanked Mikhail Gorbachev for his contribution to the settlement of the conflict,” Ignatenko said.

How did Gorbachev react to Bush’s ultimatum?

“These (six) proposals are President Gorbachev’s reaction,” Ignatenko said.

The American ultimatum is indeed “tougher than the Soviet plan,” he added, but the six new proposals are “the maximum that could be reached in the current situation.”

Ignatenko said the document sent to Hussein included the following points:

Iraq agrees to implement, without delay and without conditions, U.N. Security Council resolution 660, calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its troops from Kuwait to positions they occupied on Aug. 1.

The withdrawal would start one day after a cease-fire on land, sea and in the air.

The withdrawal from Kuwait city would be completed within the first four days and the entire withdrawal within 21 days.

Immediately after withdrawal was completed, the reason for all other Security Council resolutions punishing Iraq would lose their meaning and would be lifted.

All prisoners of war would be repatriated within three days of the cease-fire.

Control and supervision of the cease-fire and troop withdrawal would be conducted by observers or peacekeeping force chosen by the Security Council.

The Soviet mission at the United Nations made public a Tass report of the telephone conversation between Gorbachev and Bush. It stressed that the Soviet Union and Washington have parallel views.

“At the same time,” it said, “the U.S. President voiced doubts about the possibility of using the opportunity made available by the reply from Baghdad.

“He (President Bush) is particularly worried by the fate of prisoners of war,” the Tass report said, “who are being kept in the most arduous conditions, as well as by the unacceptability of ignoring the colossal material damage inflicted upon neighboring countries as a result of Iraq’s aggression.

“The U.S. President also voiced dissatisfaction,” Tass added, “with the time span for Iraqi troop withdrawal. . . .

“Gorbachev referred to assurances by Aziz that, once the Iraqi leadership decided to withdraw, it would carry it out,” Tass said. “Gorbachev voiced hope that this is how it would be.

“As far as a subsequent settlement is concerned, the establishment of a reliable security system in the region--the necessity of which has been widely realized now and which would include a gradual demilitarization--does not give any grounds to interpret the end of war as a certain bonus for the aggression, as the U.S. President fears.”

Fitzwater, the White House spokesman, said of the telephone call between Gorbachev and Bush: “The discussion went back and forth on various points.

“They have been very helpful to the coalition from the very beginning,” Fitzwater added, echoing the public approach the Administration has taken toward Gorbachev. Privately, some in the Administration have said that Gorbachev’s role has been particularly damaging to U.S.-Soviet relations.

After suggesting during the past week that the talks taking place between the Soviets and the Iraqis were a matter for those two countries, Fitzwater acknowledged that the peace effort had in effect become a three-way conversation.

At the United Nations

The United Nations resembled a giant street bazaar with delegates and journalists meeting in the hallways or at the entrance to the delegates’ lounge, exchanging the latest political information and proposals.

A cautious yet hopeful note was sounded by Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar after he listened to private reports from U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering and Soviet Ambassador Yuli M. Vorontsov in separate meetings.

Neither Pickering nor Vorontsov would comment.

Asked whether the Bush ultimatum and the White House rejection of Soviet-Iraqi proposals had diminished the chances for peace, an obviously tired Perez de Cuellar replied: “Well, I think they are still talking together. I thing that as long as there are contacts between the Soviet Union and the United States, I am encouraged.”

Although Perez de Cuellar cautioned reporters from reading too much into his orders, he instructed Marrack Goulding, the undersecretary for political affairs, to consult with several countries involved in the war to see if they could provide troops to monitor a withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

The secretary general said that the Goulding mission is simply a preparatory move in case the United Nations is asked to oversee a withdrawal.

A similar note of optimism came from Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Kamal Kharazi, who insisted that the Bush ultimatum had not ended negotiations for a peaceful solution.

“We should not lose our hope,” Kharazi said. “ . . . I do not believe we are at the stage of a ground war.

“We are at the stage of being very close to a final political solution.”

While some delegates looked on Bush’s ultimatum and its accompanying points as a step in negotiations, Iraq’s closest allies in the Security Council expressed dismay and looked on the noon deadline as an obstacle to peace.

“I can’t even move from my apartment in 24 hours!” said Yemen’s U.N. ambassador, Abdalla Ashtal.

“It’s humiliating to the Security Council,” charged Cuba’s ambassador, Ricardo Alarcon. “We haven’t even met, and we have been told by the United States that we have a deadline by noon tomorrow. The big sheriff is deciding what we do.”

Gerstenzang reported from Washington and Shogren from Moscow. Times staff writers Mark Fineman and Nick B. Williams Jr. in Amman, Jordan, Kim Murphy in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Rone Tempest in Paris, John M. Broder in Washington, and John J. Goldman and Stanley Meisler at the United Nations contributed to this report.

PRESIDENT BUSH ON ALLIED POSITION

President Bush, in a Friday morning statement, thanked Soviet efforts to persuade the Iraqis to withdraw but expressed reservations. Later, the Soviets announced a more specific plan. On the confusion from Iraq:

“Within the last 24 hours alone, we have heard a defiant, uncompromising address by Saddam Hussein, followed less than 10 hours later by a statement in Moscow that, on the face of it, appears more reasonable.” On the Soviet initiative:

“The (Soviet-Iraqi) statement promised unconditional Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, only to set forth a number of conditions. And needless to say, any conditions would be unacceptable to the international coalition and would not be in compliance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 660’s demand for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.” On what Saddam must do:

“The coalition will give Saddam Hussein until noon Saturday to do what he must do: begin his immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. We must hear publicly and authoritatively his acceptance of these terms.” On the risks:

(The list of specific demands) “informs Saddam Hussein that he risks subjecting the Iraqi people to further hardship unless the Iraqi government complies fully with the terms of the statement.