and set the stage for Iraq to be held responsible for reparations for material damage and for war crimes.

        Saudi Ambassador Samir Shihabi said, "the invasion of Kuwait has created issues - local, bilateral and regional - and all this should be solved. You can't just simplistically say: "thank you: I came in, I pillaged, I destroyed, I put on fire, I killed, I did everything, but now, thank you very much, I am going back home."

        The council also held private consultations into the early morning hours, discussing how to best proceed to get Iraq to comply fully and respond to a request from the Iraqi leader for a cease-fire.

        British Ambassador Sir David Hannay said Iraq's willingness to withdraw unconditionally and quickly was "the good news".

        "The less good news was the representative of Iraq in his statement to council which made it extremely clear that the only resolution he was accepting was 660 and that cast some doubt on how best to proceed," Sir David said. "Most of the council believe that all 12 resolutions which are referred to in Resolution 678 must be accepted".

        Soviet Ambassador Yuliy Vorontsov reported on a message President Gorbachev received from Saddam Hussein.

        Vorontsov characterized it as "rather short, rather terse," indicating that the Iraqi leader had already given the withdrawal order and asking the Soviet Union "to convey to the Security Council his request for a cease-fire."

        The Soviet Union, he said, "is in favor of all the resolutions being implemented, but 660 is the one we started with in trying to push Iraq from Kuwait and I think it is important that 660 should be a starting point."

        Kuwaiti Ambassador Mohammad Abulhasan said that the Iraqi response "is not enough at all, because it ignored totally other Security Council resolutions."

        Abulhasan used as an example the fact that the Iraqi ambassador told the council that "Kuwait geographically is undisputed but constitutionally that is something else. Here he meant they are only withdrawing their troops from territory which belongs to them and constitutionally Kuwait is stiff part of Iraq."

        "He wants to give the impression that the withdrawal is taking place from Iraqi territory instead of a sovereign state which has been occupied by force," he said. "My reply was unless all Security Council resolutions are clearly mentioned then we are nowhere.

        "Without a formal letter from the government of Iraq to the Secretary - General, accepting all Security Council resolutions, the mere statement here is not valid particularly because Iraq is not trustworthy in its international dealings," Abulhasan said.

(USIS, New Delhi)

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