Waite `failed to deliver'

Terry Waite was kidnapped for failing to deliver on alleged promises regarding Arabs jailed in Kuwait, militia and religious sources said yesterday. One said the British church envoy was ``tried'' by an Islamic court. A senior militia official told Reuters in west Beirut that Mr. Waite was abducted by the captors of foreigners he sought to free because of unfulfilled assurances he was alleged to have made concerning the fate of 17 Arabs jailed in Kuwait.

A Muslim religious source, contacted by telephone from Cyprus, said Waite was ``tried'' immediately after his abduction Jan. 20 for allegedly having failed to fulfill a pledge to secure more United States arms supplies for Iran.

The religious source said he was being held in Beirut's mainly Shiite Muslim southern suburbs.