World IN BRIEF : EL SALVADOR : Cristiani Optimistic on Ending Civil War

President Alfredo Cristiani said the main obstacles to ending El Salvador’s 11-year-old civil war have been removed, but U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said negotiations are still at an impasse. Perez de Cuellar, in a statement read by his spokesman, said progress was made in the weeklong talks between the government and senior commanders of the rebel Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front but that “roadblocks” remain. Diplomats said the main one is the incorporation of rebels and other opposition parties into a new civil police force. But Cristiani, in his speech to the General Assembly, said “only final details need to be resolved.”