Presidential Summit In Guatemala

At the opening of a summit with Central American leaders on Thursday, President Clinton reaffirmed U.S. commitments to fighting drug trafficking, lowering trade barriers and implementing more equitable immigration laws. He agreed with other leaders that the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch has provided the proper impetus for addressing those problems.

Mr. Clinton declared a "springtime of renewal and rebuilding" in Central America, a rebirth spawned by the hurricane but buoyed by a new solidarity between nations. "The sun shines on us today," he said. "For all the problems people face, we must never lose sight of the path that leads to a brighter tomorrow."

The leaders worked on a joint communiqué broadly pledging cooperation to improve human rights, tackle crime and drugs, and clean up the environment. The document went through some 37 drafts over the course of Mr. Clinton's four-day tour of the region, which concluded in Guatemala.

The president met Thursday with leaders from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Belize.

President Alvaro Arzu of Guatemala said the hurricane showed the need for "an integral plan for development" in Central America, and predicted the area would prosper once it gains wider access to world economic markets. "If we want democracy to remain with us forever, we must be sure it is translated into evident and tangible benefits for our people," he said. "If we want for our people to stay... we need to offer them the opportunities that we now only find abroad."

Salvadoran President-elect Francisco Flores echoed the gratitude of his regional counterparts when he told Mr. Clinton his travels through Central America had served to "validate the process of peace."

But on trade, leaders here wanted more than the president offered in the Caribbean Basin Initiative he sent to Congress last week.

National security adviser Sandy Berger said Mr. Clinton's Central American counterparts seemed most concerned with the issues of attracting jobs and investment. "What they face now is a gigantic economic problem caused by the hurricane, with thousands of jobs decimated and the need for new capital and investment," he said.

He acknowledged that the limited trade benefits the administration has asked Congress for fall short of the latitude Mexico won under the North American Free Trade Agreement. But he said they were the best Mr. Clinton could offer, given the tricky politics of his own Democratic Party's resistance to knocking down trade barriers. "He had proposed what he thought was the best possible bill that had a reasonable chance of passage," Berger said.

Part of Mr. Clinton's mission on this trip has been to repair the image of an American colossus that spent billions of dollars during the 1980s to finance Cold War-era battles against leftist insurgents in Cntral America. He recalled it as a time that provoked "bitter divisions about our role in your region."

Guatemalans harbor a deep resentment toward the United States over a 36-year civil war in which 200,000 Guatemalans died or disappeared. At a roundtable discussion with Guatemalan citizens on Wednesday, Mr. Clinton said any U.S. support given military forces or intelligence units that engaged in "violent and widespread repression" was wrong. "And the United States must not repeat that mistake."

On immigration, another subject of great concern in the region, the president promised that his administration was working to ease the standards by which some 600,000 illegal Central Americans could become eligible for legal status.