ARMS SALES . . . GO FOR IT

President Clinton approved a comprehensive policy to sell conventional weapons to U.S. allies, rather than reduce sales, as the defense industry had once feared.TIME Defense correspondent Mark Thompsonsays that despite Clinton's 1992 campaign promise to cut back on arms sales sharply, the new policy "does nothing to reduce the U.S role as the world's leading arms merchant." Like its predecessors, he says, the Administration still "allows a wide variety of weapons to be sold to a wide variety of nations." Defense contractors did come up one short on their wish list, though: The White House refused to continue U.S. loan guarantees to foreign countries, though contractors insisted some nations need financial help to purchase American-made weapons.