
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003133376
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

BUSH TO SEEK $300 MILLION FOR ASSISTANCE TO NICARAGUA

President Bush intends to ask Congress to shift $300 million from the current defense budget to aid the newly elected government in Nicaragua and to demobilize and repatriate the Contra resistance forces still under arms, administration officials said Monday.

The aid request, the opening installment of a multiyear program to revive Nicaragua's economy, would include money for sending refugees home, agricultural assistance, fuel, medical aid and a public works program.

The request is to be added to a $500 million aid package proposed last month for Panama, which also would be financed from this year's defense budget. That package has been stalled for weeks in a skirmish between the executive branch and the appropriations committees of Congress over how the money would be used and what defense programs would be affected.

This controversy is taking place against a background of deepening Panamanian concern over the pace of U.S. aid, dramatized by a hunger strike this week by Panamanian President Guillermo Endara in Panama City. Endara said he wanted to show "solidarity with my fellow citizens who are suffering from malnutrition and poverty."

Meanwhile, in Chile, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega assured Vice President Dan Quayle Monday that he will turn over power to the country's newly elected government, including control of the nation's military.

In the first such conversation in a decade between Ortega and a top U.S. official, Quayle told the Nicaraguan leader that he could not make demobilization of the U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas a precondition for transferring power to the new government, and he called on Ortega to help control what the United States says has been violence against the Contras and political opponents.

Quayle said that during the conversation Ortega "guaranteed" two things - that he will turn over power to President-elect Violeta Chamorro on April 25 and that she will "appoint all the ministers, including the ministers of interior and defense."

Quayle aides quoted Ortega as saying the transition in Nicaragua "will be even more peaceful" than the one occurring in Chile. Ortega asked Quayle to immediately lift U.S. sanctions against Nicaragua, U.S. officials said, and was told that this was "under active consideration" at the White House.

In Washington, an administration official said Secretary of State James A. Baker III, Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney and Budget Director Richard G. Darman believe they have worked out a list of Defense Department programs or items that Congress would agree to trim to pay for the aid to both countries. These offsets would assure that the aid money would not add to the budget deficit.

Officials said that Bush will present the proposal today to Congress and that Baker is going to Capitol Hill Wednesday to explain it in further detail.

Baker and Bush were calling congressional leaders Sunday night to inform them of the proposal. In addition, Bush called Chamorro Monday to brief her on the package.

The administration plan was developed after two National Security Council meetings and a number of smaller meetings to determine how to tap the defense budget to generate the needed funds.

by CNB