HAITI . . . CARRIBEANS, U.S. BANG INVASION DRUM

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali declared a United Nations effort to coax Haiti's leaders out of power a failure, after the junta refused to meet with a U.N. envoy Monday. And today, four Carribean countries agreed to supply 266 peacekeeping soldiers to police Haiti after a possible U.S. invasion. At a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, senior U.S. officials elicited the troop promises from Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and Belize, but the three other Caribbean Community members with armies -- Guyana, the Bahamas and Antigua -- balked at the last minute without immediate explanation. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch said the multinational force would begin training in Puerto Rico and enter Haiti after the military junta departs -- either peacefully or post-invasion. For all the talk, says TIME Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson, no deadline for an invasion has been determined, and the Jamaica meeting hasn't set any U.S. military wheelWAR BUDDIES? Even though the Carribean troops likely won't be part of an invasion, TIME's Thompson says, the operations-level staff at the Pentagon is eager to draw a "fig leaf" of international cover over their all-U.S. invasion cast, Persian Gulf-style. If force is used, he says, look for a token contingent from Canada.