Hussein to Have Far-ranging, Top Level Discussions During Washington Visit

King Hussein of Jordan will have far-ranging discussions with leading Congressmen and senior American government officials during his five-day visit to Washington, beginning with a conference tomorrow morning at the White House with President Nixon.

State Department spokesman John King said that Hussein, who arrives this afternoon, will meet with Secretary of State William P. Rogers at the State Department following the White House meeting. He indicated that before his expected departure from Washington Friday, the Jordanian ruler will also see Pentagon officials.

King declined to say whether “new initiatives” regarding a Middle East settlement will emerge in the discussions or whether the United States will provide the Jordanian government with a new grant of $5 million in economic aid, the sum it gave Jordan for the year which ends June 30.

NO NEW PROPOSALS BY BRITISH

State Department officials have made it clear that the top-level British delegation in Washington late last week offered no new proposals on the Middle East. British Prime Minister Edward Heath himself said publicly in an NBC interview that “We have no new proposals from the point of view of a blueprint to put forward” and that he did not advance any in his discussions with President Nixon on the Middle East.

Heath observed that Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home “obviously” was discussing it in “more detail” with Secretary of State Rogers, but a Department official said no proposals came from the Foreign Secretary. The U.S. officials did inform the British of American ideas regarding the Middle East, the source said, but he declined to disclose them.