The Day in the Gulf

* STEP TOWARD PEACE: Allied and Iraqi military commanders meeting at an Iraqi air base cleared the way for a permanent truce. They agreed on the release of prisoners and steps to avoid further skirmishes. Iraqi commanders turned over information on the location of thousands of mines Iraq planted in Kuwait and Persian Gulf waters. The allies promised to withdraw their forces from Iraqi territory once a formal cease-fire is signed.

* PRISONER COUNT: The allies hold 63,000 Iraqi prisoners, including 1,405 plucked Sunday by helicopter from the Kuwaiti island of Faylakah, the U.S. Central Command said. The numbers of Iraqi tanks, artillery and other equipment captured or destroyed are rising and expected to increase as allies revisit battle sites.

* IRAQ MOVES TROOPS: U.S. military sources said Saddam Hussein had ordered two of Iraq’s mechanized brigades from the Turkish and Iranian borders to the Baghdad area. The sources speculated that the estimated 7,000 troops, which include a Republican Guard brigade, were moved to protect Hussein’s regime or engage the allies if fighting resumed.

* BAKER CITES OPPORTUNITIES: Secretary of State James A. Baker III said that vanquishing Iraq’s army has created new opportunities for peace in the Middle East, but the United States “cannot impose a solution” on Israel or the Arab states. Baker and other officials signaled that the coalition will go easier on seeking reparations from Iraq if Hussein is ousted.

* TV CREW RECUPERATING: In London, four members of a CBS television crew were reported in good condition at a hospital, a day after being released from custody in Iraq. They have lost weight because of malnutrition, not because of disease, said a doctor who examined them. The four had been beaten, he said, but they showed no physical effects from it.