HAITI . . . U.S. SNUBS JUNTA'S POTENTIAL OFFER

The White House isn't impressed with hints from Haiti's military that it would dump its leader if the U.S. would back off from invasion. A tentative offer from senior Haitian military officers would have sacrificed their capo, Lieut. General Raoul Cedras, if the U.S. dropped demands for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide--and eased a trade embargo that's only now beginning to squeeze the ruling elite. But today, White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said the U.S. was still pushing for a United Nations resolution to "remove the dictators by any means necessary." Meanwhile, in Port-au-Prince, an army-backed effort to whip up opposition to possible U.S. intervention flopped when a Roman Catholic bishop barred a priest from conducting a Mass commemorating Haitians killed in the July 28, 1915, U.S. invasion of Haiti.