Canada’s Mulroney Seeks Quick Pact on Acid Rain : Environment: The prime minister wants to see an end to U.S.-produced contaminants.

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on Thursday expressed disappointment in the Bush Administration’s proposal to curb acid rain, but said he would be “satisfied” with its approval and will move for a quick acid rain agreement between the nations.

Speaking to editors and reporters of The Times in Los Angeles, Mulroney said Canada “would like more” than Bush proposed, which was a cut of about 50% by the year 2000 in the U.S.-produced oxides that Canadians believe have destroyed 15,000 lakes and damaged 150,000 others.

The Bush acid rain plan is part of a comprehensive environmental package now being considered by the House.

Mulroney himself two years ago proposed a 50% cut by 1994 in U.S. sulfide and nitrogen oxide emissions, which travel in the atmosphere from the industrial upper Midwest to New England and Canada, where the pollutants fall in the form of acid rain, snow or particulate.

“We would like the Americans to have done something similar,” said the prime minister, who was on his first official visit to Los Angeles. But, he added, “we’re satisfied this represents substantial progress.”

Mulroney also used his Los Angeles stop to announce that Canada, following the lead of the United States and several European nations, was forwarding a $42-million aid package for Poland and Hungary to help prod those nations toward democracy and economic stability.

“The pace of change (in Eastern Europe) is both breathtaking and astounding,” Mulroney told 850 guests of the World Affairs Council, meeting at the Bonaventure Hotel on Thursday. “But its outcome, particularly in Poland, remains in doubt. . . . Those countries need assistance, and they need it now.”

Bush last week added $200 million in aid for Poland, bringing to $427 million the amount of total aid the United States intends to send to Warsaw. The American and Canadian grants bring to almost $700 million the amount pledged so far by the world’s nations. The new, Solidarity-led government in Warsaw has asked for $1 billion in outside funds to help prop up its economy.

Mulroney’s acceptance of Bush’s acid rain plan--even though it essentially doubles the amount of time required to cut back acid rain-causing emissions--was a symbol of how strongly the Canadians are welcoming any movement after unsuccessfully pleading for assistance on the environmental front during the Ronald Reagan Administration. The issue has been a major sticking point between the nations.

But Mulroney indicated that Canada is not putting all its faith in the Republican Administration. Several times during an interview, he noted that Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, a Democrat from Maine, has vowed to see the clean air legislation pass.

In other comments during his Los Angeles stay, Mulroney praised the U.S.-Canadian free trade agreement, approved last year after years of wrangling--and still unpopular among many Canadians.

Gesturing toward former President Ronald Reagan, who introduced Mulroney at the World Affairs Council gathering, the prime minister said the agreement would “rank among President Reagan’s finest legacies.”