Coalition on Iraq Firm, Baker Says : Gulf crisis: The secretary of state winds up a weeklong trip through the Mideast and Europe and says President Bush may take additional steps to prepare for possible military action.

PARIS —  Winding up a weeklong trip through the Middle East and Europe, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Saturday that the international coalition against Iraq is firm despite disagreements among its members about how long to wait before resorting to the use of force.

Baker said President Bush, who will meet with many of the same leaders next week, will take up where he left off in laying the foundation for military action if economic and political steps do not force Iraq to end its occupation of Kuwait.

“This is a process that we are engaged in,” Baker said. “There remain . . . some things that need to be done to complete laying this foundation--politically, militarily and even economically. There are things that will have to be accomplished during the President’s trip.”

Bush is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia on Thanksgiving Day for dinner with U.S. troops. He is also expected to confer with officials of the Saudi kingdom.

Also next week, the President will meet in Paris with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and a number of European leaders during the summit meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

As he was flying to Bahrain at the start of his seven-nation trip, Baker said he wanted to find out if other members of the international coalition would be willing to fight if the confrontation escalates into an offensive war intended to drive Iraqi soldiers out of Kuwait.

In summing up his talks, however, Baker softened his objectives. He said his primary purpose was to avoid cracks in the coalition and to prove to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein that divide-and-defeat tactics will not work.

He made it clear that from Washington’s viewpoint, it is better to maintain unity--even at a lowest-common-denominator level--than to push too fast for measures that some allied countries are reluctant to take.

“We need to make all of our options credible if we are to succeed,” he said.

“It was not intended that each and every one of these stops be a decision-making session. I am very pleased with the progress that we have made overall during this trip.”

However, the extent of the commitment of France, Baker’s last stop, remained unclear Saturday.

Shortly before Baker’s departure for Paris on Friday, a senior Bush Administration official said that the United States did not yet know if French troops would join an offensive if it comes to that. The official said Baker would try to find out in Paris.

Asked at his news conference Saturday after meetings with President Francois Mitterrand and Foreign Affairs Minister Roland Dumas if he now knows France’s intentions, Baker replied, “I think we do know now.”

He refused to say, however, which way the issue was resolved. But he said his meetings in France were “very productive.”

Baker said he is confident that French forces deployed in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf are militarily ready to fight.

“Whether there will be a resort to the use of force will require decisions at the highest political levels,” he said.

Baker also insisted that the coalition of 50 or so countries that have contributed troops or money or both is in firm agreement that Iraq must withdraw from Kuwait with nothing to show for its aggression. But, he conceded, there are disagreements about timing and methods.

“There are differing opinions as to how long it would take for sanctions to work,” he said. “There are even differences of opinion as to how much the sanctions are already working.” He was referring to the trade sanctions that the U.N. Security Council imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2.

Although Baker refused to comment on possible time schedules, military experts, both in and outside of the government, have said it will take at least two months for U.S. troop reinforcements, announced by the President last week, to reach the gulf and make preparations for an offensive.

In the meantime, Baker said, the United States will not try to discourage other countries from seeking a peaceful way out of the crisis, even if that effort involves sending special envoys to Baghdad.

But he said Washington would object strongly to any nation offering Hussein a deal that he could consider even a partial victory.

“We do discourage . . . partial solutions,” Baker said. He added that the United States objects to foreign dignitaries who “permit themselves to be used for shameful purposes.”

Although he cited no names, Baker apparently was referring to former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone who have sought, and obtained, the release of some foreign hostages by visiting Hussein and giving him a chance for a propaganda bonanza.

Baker said the Persian Gulf crisis is now in a new phase “in which we must heighten the pressure further (and) . . . lay the foundation for the use of force should that become necessary.

“One way to do that is, clearly, to get ready militarily,” he said.