Clinton Vows to Back Up Haiti Embargo : Sanctions: The president hints that he will use U.S. naval power to enforce the new U.N. edict.

Hinting strongly that he will use U.S. naval power to enforce a new U.N. embargo, President Clinton said Thursday that the United States will exert steadily increasing pressure on Haiti’s military rulers until they permit a restoration of democracy.

Clearly smarting from criticism that he had signaled timidity by recalling about 200 military trainers from Haiti earlier this week, Clinton warned that army and police leaders “would be sadly misguided if they think the United States has weakened its resolve” to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power as the island nation’s only elected president.

At the same time, Clinton opened himself to another humiliating rebuff by declaring that the safety of Aristide’s prime minister, Robert Malval, “is very important to me.” Only a few hours after Clinton spoke, gunmen--almost certainly operating with the approval of Haitian military leaders--assassinated Malval’s justice minister, Guy Malary, and two bodyguards.

The White House, in a statement released by communications director Mark Gearan, said: “The President strongly condemns the killing of Haitian Minister of Justice Guy Malary as a desperate attempt to thwart the will of the Haitian people for democracy.”

With Administration concerns heightened by the assassination, the President and his national security advisers met through the evening Thursday in an effort to decide how to respond to the killing and to the overall situation in Haiti.

Although no final decisions were made, a senior White House official said the Administration was considering a range of alternatives, including military options, and that it expects to announce further sanctions as early as today.

The actions could include freezing the assets of top Haitian military personnel in the United States and denying U.S. visas to top Haitian military and police authorities.

Malval and his Cabinet, appointed by Aristide, took office in August as part of a complex peace agreement signed July 3 on Governors Island in New York’s harbor. The accord calls for the Aristide Cabinet to take over the civil functions of the government while the military, headed by Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, would be authorized to continue exercising responsibility for security during the first part of a transition period.

Under the plan, Cedras and other military leaders are to resign today and Aristide is to return to Haiti on Oct. 30. But that schedule now is very much in doubt. Moreover, Malval and his Cabinet have been repeatedly threatened by military-backed terrorists known as attaches.

The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to reimpose economic sanctions after a mob of attaches prevented the docking of a U.S. Navy ship carrying about 200 U.S. and Canadian military trainers. The sanctions had been suspended after Malval took the oath of office.

Clinton vowed to make sure the sanctions are tough enough to force Cedras and his backers to abide by the Governors Island plan.

Asked if the United States would use a naval blockade to enforce the embargo, Clinton said: “I support strongly enforcing these sanctions--strongly. And over the next few days we will be announcing the form which that sanctions enforcement will take.”

Clinton volunteered his concern about Malval’s safety.

“This is very important to me,” he said. “. . . I want to send a clear signal . . . that the United States is very concerned about (Malval’s) ability to function and his personal safety and the safety of his government. . . . “It would be . . . a grave error to underestimate the extent to which this country regards him as an important part of the ultimate solution,” Clinton said. He did not say what the U.S. government would do to protect Malval.