WASHINGTON — On a day marked by bipartisan support for a new trade agreement, Republican leaders said Wednesday that the GOP is ready to work with Democrats to pass legislation that will provide for universal health care, another primary goal of President Clinton.

But while Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour said that "there can be bipartisan health care reform," he stressed that Republicans oppose the recently introduced Clinton legislation and consider it "a government-run health care system financed by a gigantic payroll tax that's going to hurt the economy and cost millions of jobs."

Both the President and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who headed the task force that shaped the health care legislation, have met repeatedly with Republicans seeking bipartisan support for reform. They have emphasized that they are willing to compromise on all aspects of the bill except universal coverage.

Barbour and two fellow Mississippians who hold GOP leadership positions--Sen. Thad Cochran, the Republican Conference chairman, and Sen. Trent Lott, secretary of the conference--were interviewed at a breakfast with The Times Washington Bureau. They pointed out that Republicans also have introduced health care initiatives. If reform legislation is to pass, there must be compromises all around, they said.

"We'll have to negotiate, we'll have to have compromises," Barbour said.

Cochran credited Clinton with showing leadership on the issue and being "the first President in a long time that's spent so much time and effort and attention to the health care reform issue." But Cochran and Lott both suggested that the more Americans know about Clinton's plan and the Republican proposals, the more they will favor the GOP approach.

If the Clintons "are willing to negotiate and work the problems out," Lott said, "I think the net result is probably there will be, in the next year or year and a half, some positive health care reform."

All three party officials spoke guardedly about the prospects for more bipartisan efforts in Congress in the wake of the battle over the North American Free Trade Agreement. Before the effort on the trade issue, bitter partisan fights killed the President's economic stimulus program and almost doomed a Clinton budget that the Democrat-controlled Congress finally passed with no Republican support.