KUWAIT MAKES U.S. WAIT TO DEPLOY TROOPS.

Byline: Neil MacFarquhar The New York Times

Defense Secretary William Perry, who is seeking to repair cracks in the coalition arrayed against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said in Kuwait on Sunday that further U.S. attacks on Iraq were ``still a possibility.''

But the question of just how well the United States was shepherding the coalition was underscored by the fact that Kuwait, for which Washington had been able to do no wrong since Iraq invaded in 1990, at least temporarily stymied Washington's plan to send additional troops here.

With the Kuwaitis apparently annoyed because they felt there had not been sufficient consultation over the plan, Perry said Sunday that the deployment, announced by Washington on Friday, was on hold until the United States received permission from the Kuwaiti government. American officials said they expected the permission.

But even as some administration officials were warning Sunday of the possibility of another, and perhaps far more damaging, strike on Iraq, others were sounding less bellicose. The mixed signals created a perception that the United States was without a firm policy for containing Iraq after acts of defiance that began two weeks ago with a move by Iraqi troops into Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.

Madeleine Albright, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, said on the NBC News program ``Meet the Press'' that the Clinton administration was ``not going to be pressed into overreacting.''

And Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iraq had apparently stopped repairing the air defenses hit by American cruise missiles - an Iraqi move Washington had demanded.

Perry, stopping in Kuwait for four hours between consultations in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, revealed details of the continuing buildup of American forces in the Persian Gulf.

Aside from the previously announced second aircraft carrier battle group due in the Persian Gulf and the eight F-117 stealth fighters that arrived on Friday, Perry said that Bahrain had agreed to the stationing of 26 American F-16 jet fighters there and that a Patriot missile battery was being moved into Kuwait.

Responding to criticism that U.S. policy toward Iraq consisted largely of shooting from the hip, Perry painted the recent attacks on Iraqi air defense sites as part of an attempt to further constrain Saddam.

``We believe that the goal of Saddam Hussein is to dominate this region and that he has only been prevented from this goal by this containment policy,'' Perry said at a news conference.

He said the Iraqis had fired on allied aircraft six times before announcing Friday night that they would cease challenging the missions in the zone of southern Iraq that the United States and its allies have declared off limits to Iraqi aircraft. That zone, and a similar zone in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, were set up by the United States and its allies in 1991 after the Persian Gulf War.

While Perry would not get any argument from Kuwait about the continuing menace from Saddam, the defense secretary did have to backpedal on the deployment of additional American troops, saying the decision to go forward would have to come from Kuwait's Higher Defense Council.