To the editor:

I would like to urge President Bush to send without delay James Baker to talk to the president of Iran.

Baker is a skillful negotiator, though I recognize this would bypass the State Department.

President Bush should see this as a very separate subject of negotiations from the negotiation and concern over the efforts of Iran to become a nuclear power and let the Europeans negotiate on that subject.

Remember that the president of Iran put out a feeler in his recent speech to U.N. General Assembly. So the timing now is right.

Dialogue is always to be preferred to fighting and misunderstanding.

I would hope that the president would take this recommendation under thoughtful consideration.

J.W. Drury,

Lawrence