Damascus Jan 12 (DPA -NT) - U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Russia's new foreign minister, Yevgeny Primakov, agreed Thursday in a telephone conversation to meet in Europe in mid-February, the U.S. State Department announced. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Christopher called Primakov Thursday from Jerusalem, where Christopher has been trying to revive the Syrian-Israeli peace process. Christopher congratulated Primakov, whom he has met briefly several times, and then suggested it would be a good idea to meet to discuss some current issues, including the Middle East peace process, Bosnia and the future of NATO. It was agreed that the meeting would take place somewhere in Europe in February, probably in conjunction with a trip Christopher is planning to Bosnia. Although Christopher does not have extensive first-hand experience of Primakov, some State Department officials who work for Christopher have some strong opinions about the Russian. Most vivid is the recollection of how Primakov, sent to Iraq in February 1991 by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to try to negotiate an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, undercut the coalition diplomatic efforts. As officials describe the episode, Primakov went to Baghdad while the air war was in full swing against Iraq. The Russian diplomat, then a deputy foreign minister, met President Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi leader's command bunker over a period of three days. With the sound of bombs in the background, Primakov called the U.S. State Department to describe his progress in trying to head off the necessity of a ground war against Iraq. To the astonishment and anger of American officials, Primakov described a plan which did not require an unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait by the Iraqi forces. That had been core of the western proposal that Primakov had been sent to present to Saddam Hussein. The Americans rejected the ideas proposed to Iraq by Primakov and called Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev in Moscow who, in effect, discredited Primakov and recalled him. The 100-hour ground campaign against Iraq went ahead with the Iraqis suffering a crippling but not fatal defeat. Christopher was not directly involved in that effort by the Bush administration, but he has been fully briefed, according to his spokesman, about an incident that still wrankles some U.S. officials who will now have to work with the new Russian Foreign Minister. dpa ja /AA1234/111808 Jan 96 nnnn

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