He said that in "an informal and easy discussion" he and his Baltic American colleagues presented various suggestions for dealing with the Baltic crisis.

Belgium's Foreign Minister, Mark Eyskens, said that "we are looking at a de-escalation" of the Baltic crisis.

Mr. Gorbachev may have hoped to ease the Baltic crisis by sending his top adviser to meet the Lithuanians.

But he said he knew of no connection between this fact and President Gorbachev's recent message to President Bush on the Baltic crisis.

Western European leaders, concerned about wider repercussions of the Baltic crisis, also neither encouraged nor rejected Lithuania's claim to independence.

But even with such distractions, there are dangerous wild card factors certain to bring the Baltic crisis back to boil.

On Jan. 15 Gorbachev went so far as to suggest that the country's new liberal press law might be suspended in the wake of Soviet media criticism of the leadership's handling of the Baltic crisis.

This could help Mr. Bush, whose strategy has been to avoid allowing the Baltic crisis to dominate East-West relations.

Mr. Baker went out of his way to praise Mr. Gorbachev for his efforts to resolve the Baltic crisis peacefully, after last January's violent crackdown.

Mr. Brazauskas has played a central role in the Baltic crisis, trying to appease the growing sentiment for greater autonomy in Lithuania while avoiding an open confrontation with Moscow.