The Day in the Gulf

* POSTWAR DIPLOMACY PLANS: President Bush will use his Gulf War victory to attempt to forge a comprehensive new Mideast order, Administration officials said. It would include accords on arms control and peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. “There’s a window of opportunity now,” one official observed. “We need some active diplomacy to keep the window open and, hopefully, to widen it.”

* BRINGING ORDER TO KUWAIT: Allied troops took the first steps toward establishing martial law in Kuwait city. Sporadic gun battles continued between military forces and gunmen still holed up in fortified houses in isolated areas of the city. Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti government, promising dramatic democratic reforms once order is restored, pledged to take full control over the war-torn capital within 48 hours.

* CHAOS IN BASRA: U.S. military officials said that Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, is in chaos, overrun by Iraqi troops and vehicles fleeing Kuwait. Throngs of people filled the streets of the southern Iraqi city, and hundreds of military vehicles were parked “willy-nilly,” the officers said.

* BATTLEFIELD CLASH: An Iraqi armored column opened fire on U.S. Army troops, who reacted by destroying or capturing about 140 tanks and other vehicles, a U.S. Army general said. It was the most serious clash since the cessation of hostilities in the Gulf. No U.S. casualties were reported in the clash in southern Iraq. But two Americans were killed elsewhere in land-mine explosions.

* SETTING CEASE-FIRE TERMS: The U.N. Security Council considered a U.S.-sponsored resolution dictating allied demands that Iraq must meet before a formal cease-fire is adopted in the Gulf War. The terms include the immediate release of all prisoners of war, disclosure of mine locations and Iraq’s acceptance of liability for damages caused by its forces.