COLOMBIAN DRUG BARON OFFERS TO HALT WAR AGAINST GOVERNMENT

The reputed leader of Colombia's Medellin drug cartel has said he is ready to stop an all-out war between cocaine barons and the state, the French daily Liberation said Wednesday. In a tape of a telephone conversation, Pablo Escobar said he wanted peace, but renewed a threat to wage total war against Colombian officials if the government insisted on extraditing drug traffickers to the United States.

Mr. Escobar said he was willing to let the government seize property belonging to drug barons. ``We have only one desire, to be integrated into normal society,'' he said in the telephone conversation with an unnamed person.

But Colombian Justice Minister Monica de Grieff told a news conference in Washington that her government was in no mood to enter peace talks.