Both Mr. Reagan and Mr. Bush had characterized the arms shipments as a secret diplomatic overture to moderates in Iran's Government.

None of those Governments were aware of the concerns' secret overtures to Iraq, the official said.

'Desperation of a Superpower' Hojatolislam Rafsanjani, who last November revealed details of secret American overtures toward Iran, including arms sales, did not elaborate.

In 1825 Tsar Alexander I entrusted Dorothea with a secret overture to the British government.

When the general Hou Jing rebelled in fall 548, he, knowing Xiao Zhengde's disaffection, made secret overtures to Xiao Zhengde, promising to make him emperor.

Li Maozhen began making secret overtures to Zhu, offering to kill the eunuchs and surrender the emperor to him while blaming Han for seizing the emperor.

When the Nixon Administration began making secret overtures for peace in 1968, he said, he and other skeptics allowed time to pass before joining actively in the antiwar movement.

He describes it as being initiated by the Burgundian king's brother, Godegisel, who made secret overtures to Clovis, persuaded him to invade Burgundy, and then joined him on the battlefield.

The latter, knowing Napoleon's desire for peace at the close of 1809, undertook to make secret overtures to the British cabinet of Spencer Perceval.

He'd hinted to Julia that he had made a secret overture to the San Francisco reform group.