Chief of Cambodian 'outs' defers to anticommunist

Khieu Samphan, prime minister of the deposed Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia, says he has offered to step down in favor of anticommunist resistance leader Son Sann. But Son Sann, considered one of the more respectable figures in Cambodia's murky politics, has refused the Communist proposal, demanding that he be given control of all government posts. Son Sann, who served as premier under Prince Norodom Sihanouk, has only a few thousand troops under his command. Son Sann wants the Khmer Rouge leaders to turn their army over to him and then fade away.

Meanwhile, Prince Sihanouk has said that he is reluctantly prepared to head a united front against the Vietnamese in Cambodia -- an apparent reversal from his decision to retire from politics, announced in Peking la st July.