Buchanan on Foreign Policy

PATRICK BUCHANAN is taking fresh aim at President Bush's strong suit - foreign policy.

Mr. Buchanan, who will battle Mr. Bush in the California primary, argues that the president would be wrong to send billions of dollars in aid to the former Soviet Union.

Buchanan also wants Bush to snub the upcoming United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which could put limits on emissions of carbon dioxide. Congress should make the laws, not international bureaucrats, he says.

At a breakfast meeting April 14 with reporters, Buchanan insisted that a $24 billion Western aid package for the former Soviet republics will leave them worse off. Instead, he would forgive their current $80 billion in Western loans.

"They don't have a nickel in their jeans," he says. "You do not help them by putting them $104 billion into debt." Buchanan calls the aid package a "big game" designed to bail out "foolish" German banks that extended loans to the former Soviet Union.