SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) President Reagan said Saturday thatU.S. support for Nicaraguan rebels "should continue until asatisfactory peace plan is in place."
His declaration, coming at the end of a week in whichadministration officials made conflicting statements about WhiteHouse intentions, was an indication that the administration will askCongress to provide new funds for the rebels, or contras, in thefiscal year starting Oct. 1.
It was the closest Reagan has come in recent statements tomaking it clear that he will not allow the U.S. aid pipeline to thecontras to be shut down unless an acceptable peace has been arranged.
Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, asked about thepresident's statements, said that "he's not going to desert thecontras until he knows . . . there isn't going to be a turnaround,"in which the Sandinistas institute democratic reforms and then renegeon them.
It was unclear last week whether the administration would agreeto any circumstance in which U.S. aid to the contras would besuspended from Oct. 1 to Nov. 7, while the negotiating processoutlined in a Central America peace initiative is under way.
In his radio address Saturday from his ranch in the Santa YnezMountains about 25 miles north of here, Reagan said that "ouradministration proposed a timetable for negotiations to bring peaceto Nicaragua by opening the country to democracy. Just days later,the leaders of five Central American countries themselves put forwarda plan for peace and democracy in Nicaragua."
Reagan said the plan, advanced by Costa Rican President OscarArias and signed by Arias, Ortega and the leaders of El Salvador,Honduras and Guatemala, "differs from our own in certain regards, butit's important to understand that both insist upon opening Nicaraguato genuine democracy."
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