Iraq Rejects Plan for U.N. Troops to Replace U.S. Force : Refugees: Perez de Cuellar informs Bush of Baghdad’s action. It could bog Washington down in a long-term entanglement to protect Kurds in the north.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar delivered the disappointing news to President Bush on Thursday that the Iraqi government has rejected a plan to replace U.S. and other allied troops protecting Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq with U.N. police forces.

While U.S. officials moved quickly to play down the importance of the rejection, the secretary general’s report raises the possibility that the American military’s humanitarian intervention on behalf of the Kurds could turn into a long-term entanglement.

The Bush Administration sought to maintain an air of optimism. Despite the rejection, a senior White House official said, the possibility of a U.N. police force “is clearly still an option. . . . We may or may not have hit a snag on this.”

Officials noted that Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, director of the U.N. relief operation for Iraq, is en route to Baghdad and implied that he might be able to change President Saddam Hussein’s mind about the U.N. police proposal.

In other developments:

* The House moved swiftly to finance relief aid for the Kurds, approving a $572-million bill that earmarks $150.5 million for refugees in the Persian Gulf. The measure contains another $85 million that could be used either for the Kurds or for victims of other disasters outside the Gulf area, such as the cyclone that devastated Bangladesh. The bill includes $320.5 million to finance Defense Department relief efforts in the Persian Gulf and $16 million for military service organizations aiding the families of U.S. servicemen. It now goes to the Senate.

* White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said 321,000 Kurds who fled Hussein’s forces after the Gulf War remain in the mountains inside Turkey or along the border in northern Iraq. Estimating that 20,000 left the mountains Wednesday, Fitzwater said the total number of refugees who had returned to northern Iraq now number 130,000. Relief officials in Tehran, meanwhile, said more than 70,000 of the estimated 1 million Kurds who fled to Iran have now gone home.

* Tensions are rising between Iraqi forces and the Western allies who are poised near the provincial capital of Dahuk, front-line officers reported in northwestern Iraq.

The U.N. Leader

Perez de Cuellar received the news of Iraq’s rejection of the U.N. police proposal from Marrack Goulding, deputy secretary general in charge of U.N. peacekeeping operations, who has been meeting with Iraqi government officials in Baghdad.

While posing for photos with President Bush just before a closed-door metting at the White House, Perez de Cuellar told reporters: “Today I have received a very clear rejection from the Iraq government. They do not want a United Nations police presence in the area.”

The Administration has insisted for the last two weeks that the United Nations already has full authority to send police to northern Iraq, even over Hussein’s objections, but Perez de Cuellar has not agreed with that position.

U.S. officials have been reluctant to ask the U.N. Security Council to approve a police role for fear that the request might be refused. Some governments, including the Soviet Union and China, might regard such authority as a dangerous precedent authorizing interference in the internal affairs of a U.N. member. Both nations can veto any Security Council action.

On the surface, Thursday’s encounter between the quiet and retiring U.N. leader and the expansive American President appeared amiable. Perez de Cuellar was the Peruvian ambassador to the United Nations while Bush was the U.S. envoy there in the early 1970s. In U.N. jargon, both had been “permanent representatives.”

During a public ceremony after their private session, Bush joked to Perez de Cuellar: “I think back to the times that we worked together as ‘perm reps’ 20 years ago, and I still wonder how it is that I ended up with the easier job.”

Even so, it has become obvious in recent weeks that U.S. and British officials have grown irritable with Perez de Cuellar for his hesitancy about moving aggressively into northern Iraq.

The rejection of the U.N. police plan, if it holds, would leave the Administration with four alternatives, all troublesome:

1-- Leave U.S. forces in northern Iraq indefinitely.

2-- Turn over the refugee camps to unarmed U.N., Red Cross and other relief workers.

3-- Persuade the secretary general to change his mind about insisting that police cannot go in without either a Security Council resolution or Iraqi government approval.

4-- Seek a Security Council resolution authorizing the U.N. police role.

“We have always looked at this relief effort as limited in duration,” Bush said in his closing statement to Perez de Cuellar. “We are now in the process of turning these efforts over to the United Nations, and we look forward to working with the U.N. to hasten the day when all these refugees can return home, free from fear, free to live in peace.”

In a briefing for reporters after the talks, Assistant Secretary of State John R. Bolton took the position that the Iraqi rejection may not be final and, even if it is, a U.N. police force may not be needed after all.

“We have said from the beginning that it was our hope that a large international presence alone would be sufficient to give reasonable feelings of security to the Kurds,” Bolton said. “The U.N. now has about 100 (relief workers) in the area. We expect that number will grow.”

Bolton said that the problem of security would be eased if Kurdish leaders now in Baghdad reached an agreement with Hussein about Kurdish autonomy. “If the Kurdish leaders feel that they have sufficient assurances from the regime, they would likely tell their constituencies that they felt it was sufficiently safe for them to come down,” he said.

Northern Iraq

Near the provincial capital of Dahuk in northwestern Iraq, tension was mounting between Iraq’s forces and units of the Western coalition, front-line officers said Thursday.

Tensions were rising between Iraqi forces and the Western allies who were poised front-line officers said Thursday.

There have been reports that the allies were planning to further expand their protection zone for Kurdish refugees in the north, which now measures 120 miles across and 30 miles deep. And according to relief workers, free access to Dahuk is a key to bringing down many of the more than 300,000 refugees still living in squalid mountain camps along the Turkish-Iraqi border.

But Dahuk is currently outside the zone, and there were no signs Thursday that Iraqi troops were willing to allow the allies to secure the town.

Standing on a windy hill looking toward Dahuk, just visible from the allies’ southernmost position, U.S. Marine Capt. Chris Mulholland pointed out a line of Iraqi troops in sand-colored tents.

“A special forces brigade has taken the place of the regular troops in the past few days,” Mulholland said. “They are tougher. . . . We know who they are, even though they keep taking off their red berets during (the allies’) reconnaissance overflights.”

Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery fired at U.S. Navy reconnaissance flights in this area on Tuesday night. There was speculation that the attacks, coupled with the arrival of the Iraqi special forces, may mark a toughening of resistance to coalition plans.

But allied officers do not expect the Iraqis to fight for Dahuk, and Iraqi Gen. Nushwan Danoon promised the allies that there would be no more firing at aircraft. As one Kurdish guerrilla leader said admiringly, “The allies just need to whistle, and the Iraqis will run.”

An allied map of the haven area’s future borders given to Kurdish guerrilla leaders Thursday clearly showed Dahuk just within the southern edge of an expanded security zone.

Also affected by the allies’ plans for Dahuk would be the nearby town of Sumail, which would fall inside the expanded zone and which, unusual for the region, has a largely Arab population.

Times staff writers Michael Ross, Norman Kempster and David Lauter in Washington and special correspondent Hugh Pope in northern Iraq contributed to this article.