US says it won't review sea-law proposal till fall

The United States stirred a new controversy in the UN Law of the Sea Conference when it announced it would not complete its review of a proposed sea law convention until fall. This raised doubts about the usefulness of a proposed five-week summer session in the seven-year-old attempt to formulate international regulations on the use and exploitation of the sea's resources.

The US delegation told the conference's general committee that the policy review would not be finished before autumn and that it would be preferable for the ne xt substantive session, to take place early in 1982.