Diplomacy

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in Israel today for his first meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu since the Likud Party leader became Israel's prime minister, said he will urge the new government chief to foster the kind of "good communications" with the Palestinians his predecessors had.

This was supposed to be Richard Holbrooke's last weekend in government--a characteristically high-profile farewell tour of Europe before returning to New York and private life Wednesday. Instead, he is still trying to patch up the Bosnian peace accord that U.S. officials admit is "on the edge of crisis." He still plans to leave the State Department next week, but officials said he will be called back whenever necessary to deal with Balkan "crunch points."

In a major address before El Salvador's Legislative Assembly, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Monday called for stronger ties between the United States and Central America to expand trade and strengthen still-struggling democracies in the region. He also pledged greater U.S. support on crime and counter-narcotics programs, immigration issues and environmental problems to consolidate recent political and economic gains.

As military tensions continue to mount between China and Taiwan, new U.S. Ambassador James R. Sasser on Wednesday formally presented his credentials to China's President Jiang Zemin, ending an awkward eight-month period in which the United States had no ambassador to the world's most populous country. The former Democratic senator from Tennessee, who has been taking cram courses in Mandarin Chinese, will be tested immediately by the continuing fragility of the U.S.-Chinese relationship.

There were no signs of the sword-wielding, tough-talking trade negotiator many expected to see when Ryutaro Hashimoto flew into Los Angeles for his debut on the world stage. Instead, the new Japanese prime minister used his weekend visit to unveil a much different persona--that of global statesman.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Saturday launched a round of shuttle diplomacy aimed at bringing about a cease-fire in Lebanon as the United States struggled to prevent other governments from undercutting U.S. influence in the Middle East. The peace efforts took place as fighting in southern Lebanon spread to the highways, with Israeli gunboats firing cannons at civilian cars on the country's main coastal road.

A U.S. diplomat intervened with senior Croatian government officials to expedite passage of a convoy carrying supplies that may have included Iranian arms for the Muslim government in Bosnia in the spring of 1994, administration officials said Tuesday. The convoy had been halted in Croatia, and Bosnian Muslims--desperate for help to fend off the better-equipped Serbs--were eager for it to arrive. Officials say Charles E. Redman, then chief U.S.

A U.S. delegation arrived in Monrovia to add its weight to efforts to bring a lasting peace after two weeks of fighting. Residents of the capital started returning home and cleaning up, while health workers battled to contain outbreaks of a disease thought to be cholera. Officials say the three-member U.S. delegation plans to stay until Thursday and meet the main players in the peace process.

Key details began to emerge Monday of the separate, and in some ways competing, American and French plans for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah--and they help explain why it is taking so long to stop the fighting. The French plan goes much further toward accommodating the interests of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia operating in southern Lebanon, than does the American plan.

The foreign ministers of Germany and the Czech Republic signed a declaration aimed at mending a bilateral relationship that remains strained half a century after the end of World War II. But critics in both countries complained that the initiative was only making matters worse. The ceremonial step, taken in the ornate Great Hall of the Cernin Palace in Prague, marked the end of two years of extremely disputatious negotiations.