U.S. to Seek U.N. OK for Haiti Attack, Officials Say : Caribbean: Administration plans to line up as many as 3,000 troops from other countries for invasion force.

The Clinton Administration has decided to seek a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing an invasion of Haiti by a U.S.-led multinational force to topple the military regime, officials said Wednesday.

At the same time, the Administration plans to back up the threat by lining up units for an invasion force of as many as 15,000 troops--most of them American, but as many as 3,000 from other countries.

U.S. diplomats already have begun seeking commitments from other countries both to support the proposed Security Council resolution and to offer troops for a “multilateral force,” reporters were told.

The aim of the new effort, officials said, is to persuade Haiti’s military rulers to step down peacefully rather than risk an invasion this fall.

But if Haiti’s Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras refuses to leave, the U.N. resolution and the multilateral force would make it easier for President Clinton to order an invasion because he would then have international authority for it.

The new U.S. diplomatic effort thus reflects two competing desires on Clinton’s part: to persuade Cedras that the American threat to invade Haiti is serious but also to ensure that the United States is not left to act alone in any military action in the island nation.

It also reflects what officials have described as an increasing willingness to consider the use of force on the part of U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and some members of the Security Council, including not only Russia and France but also Argentina and Brazil, Latin American countries traditionally opposed to U.S. military action in the Western Hemisphere.

State Department spokesman David Johnson said the Administration’s goal is to assemble “a U.N.-sanctioned coalition force with a mandate to establish a secure and stable environment” in Haiti. He said Undersecretary of State Peter Tarnoff flew to New York on Tuesday and discussed the idea with Boutros-Ghali, who encouraged the U.S.-led effort.

Johnson reaffirmed the Administration’s basic policy of seeking a peaceful end to the impasse in Haiti, where the Security Council has demanded that the military leaders who overthrew the nation’s elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, step down. “Our strong preference is for this to be resolved by diplomatic means,” he said.

But he confirmed that the Administration is moving ahead with plans for multilateral military action if diplomacy fails to work.

Officials refused to say how long it would be before a multinational invasion force is ready. But the diplomatic task of winning a Security Council resolution would normally require at least two weeks and the job of assembling military units from several countries longer than that.

Earlier this week, American and foreign diplomats in Haiti predicted that no invasion is possible before September because of the time needed to put together a U.N.-authorized force.

U.S. officials have refused to discuss how large a force would be needed to overwhelm the lightly armed Haitian army of about 7,000 troops. But Boutros-Ghali, in a report to the Security Council last week, estimated that 15,000 troops would be needed to restore order in Haiti even if Cedras and his supporters left the country peacefully.

Johnson and other officials said the Administration is basing its plans on Boutros-Ghali’s report, which said the initial U.S.-run force of 15,000 could gradually give way to a U.N.-led peacekeeping operation with fewer than 4,000 personnel.

Administration officials have said they do not expect other countries to contribute large numbers of troops to the initial invasion force. But if the Security Council is willing to authorize a largely U.S. force, the need for foreign contingents is viewed as minimal--and the task of assembling the force is made easier.

Under a likely diplomatic scenario, the United States would circulate as early as this week a proposed Security Council resolution that would authorize unnamed countries to use “all necessary means” to compel Cedras to step down. The same phrase was used in the 1990 resolution that authorized the United States and its allies to go to war with Iraq to reverse its invasion of neighboring Kuwait.

The Gulf War resolution gave Iraq’s regime a six-week deadline to comply with the United Nations’ demands before allied military action was authorized. Whether the proposed Haiti resolution will include a similar deadline for Cedras is uncertain.

Winning Security Council approval for such a resolution will be a major test of skill for Secretary of State Warren Christopher and the Administration’s other diplomats. In the months before the Gulf War, then-Secretary of State James A. Baker III jetted around the world in a frantic campaign to win support from council members, including China, with which the United States has prickly relations.

Even if Clinton succeeds in winning a strong Security Council resolution, he is expected to declare that he still retains the option of a unilateral invasion by the United States--to maximize pressure on the Haitian regime.