‘No Deals’ Made for Americans’ Return, U.S. Says : Punishment: Washington says its policy of trying to prosecute terrorists and kidnapers has not changed.

The Bush Administration demanded Wednesday that the remains of two Americans who died in captivity in Lebanon be returned and flatly denied promising Muslim terrorists that it would not attempt to punish them for the abduction or murder of American hostages.

During a briefing at the White House, presidential Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater insisted that there were “no deals” and “no quid pro quos “ in connection with the return of all American hostages from Lebanon. He said the United States had not changed its policy of trying to prosecute terrorists.

Meanwhile, President Bush called for the immediate return of the remains of Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins and former CIA station chief William Buckley, both of whom were killed by hostage-takers in Lebanon. The President demanded a “full accounting” of what happened to both.

Higgins headed a U.N. observer force in southern Lebanon and Buckley was stationed in Beirut.

The denials came in response to widespread speculation that, to speed the release of the final U.S. hostages, the Administration may have compromised its longstanding refusal to negotiate with terrorists by indicating, directly or indirectly, that it would take no punitive action.

The last remaining American hostage, Associated Press correspondent Terry A. Anderson, was freed Wednesday after 6 1/2 years in captivity.

The question of whether to retaliate is difficult for the Administration. On the one hand, it has consistently espoused a tough, no-compromise response to terrorism. On the other hand, it has no interest in rekindling conflicts with Middle Eastern extremists at a time when the Persian Gulf War, the mellowing of the Iranian revolution and other factors have raised hopes for progress toward peace in the volatile region.

One well-placed Administration official said privately Wednesday that it is “still premature” to decide whether the United States should retaliate against the hostage-takers.

He said officials still must debrief the hostages to obtain more specifics on what happened during their captivity.

“Until we have answers to a lot of questions,” he said, “we won’t know exactly where we stand.”

There were no immediate indications that the Administration plans to seek retribution against the hostage-takers, either by asking that they be extradited for trial here or through some sort of military action or economic sanctions.

Bush, in a statement welcoming Anderson’s release, made no mention of possible U.S. retaliation against the captors.

“We must dedicate ourselves to ensuring that hostage-taking is not resumed,” he said.

The Administration in recent weeks has been conspicuously uncritical of Syria and Iran, two countries that many experts believe played a major role in abetting hostage-taking activities over the last half-dozen years.

Instead, Bush thanked both governments Wednesday for their help in securing this week’s three hostage releases, praising their assistance--along with that of Lebanon--as a “positive development.”

The Administration’s denials of any deal, issued both by Fitzwater and by State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler, were consistent with the policy that it has expressed previously on prosecuting terrorists.

Last month, the Justice Department announced the indictment of two Libyan agents for allegedly planting the bomb that destroyed Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December, 1988.

Atty. Gen. William P. Barr declared then that the indictment was “a landmark and sends a powerful message. We have the resolve and the ability to track down--no matter how long it takes--those responsible for terrorist acts against Americans.”

Tutwiler said Wednesday that there have been “absolutely no deals made” promising that the United States would not seek retribution against the hostage-takers.

“This Administration has been very, very clear concerning its policy of promises, deals, negotiations,” she said.

At the same time, however, she declined to say categorically whether the Administration would seek to extradite the kidnapers for trial in the United States if it could build a case against specific individuals.

“It’s something . . . that I have not been privy to hearing anyone discuss,” she said.

The Reagan Administration proclaimed a similar no-deals policy. But National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and others arranged for the clandestine sale of weapons to Iran, which was thought to have controlling influence over the hostage-takers. When the deal came to light, the Administration denied that it was to swap arms for the hostages, but that became the prevailing perception of the first phase of what came to be known as the Iran-Contra scandal.

Still, the Administration was unable to prosecute suspected hostage-takers because hostages remained in terrorists’ hands. In April, 1986, however, the United States did bomb Libya in retaliation for that country’s alleged role in planting a bomb that killed an American serviceman in a disco in West Berlin the same month.

In his statement Wednesday, Bush expressed thanks to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar for his role in obtaining the release of the hostages.

Fitzwater speculated Wednesday that the timing of the Anderson release--on the same day that peace talks were to have begun between Arab and Israeli delegations--had “a direct relationship” to broader U.S. policies on “not rewarding hostage-takers.”

He also suggested that the fact the Americans were released at all also may be related to the U.S. intervention in the Persian Gulf, which he said “had an impact on attitudes in the Middle East.”

At the same time, there were suggestions from outside the government that the Administration should seek extradition of all suspected hostage-takers.

L. Paul Bremer, former ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism and now at Kissinger Associates, a New York-based advisory firm, said Washington should demand that Iran and Syria turn over the hostage-captors.

“It’s nice to have the hostages out, but that’s only one issue on the list,” Bremer said. “There’s still a lot of unfinished business. . . . We should demand that to end the crisis these people should be handed over.”

Times staff writers Jim Mann, Douglas Jehl and Robin Wright also contributed to this report.