In the face of opposition to President Clinton's promise to lift the ban on gays in the military, Defense Secretary Les Aspin has urged a six-month review of the controversial question.

Aspin said he had sent Clinton a 10-page memo outlining a strategy."The proposal is take six months and see whether we can do it," Aspin said.

The delay in implementing Clinton's campaign promise would mark a significant departure from the president's earlier pledges to put the policy change into place shortly after he was inaugurated.

At the White House, his spokeswoman declined to say whether Clinton would accept the recommendation.

"He will be announcing his policy sometime soon," said press secretary Dee Dee Myers.

And amid reports that Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, might even resign over the issue, Aspin also indicated that the change may never come about if congressional and military opposition is not overcome.

"Bill Clinton has made this pledge. He is committed to giving it a try," Aspin said Sunday on the CBS "Face the Nation" program.

"But anything that we do can be overturned by other parts of the government, and that means that we've got to come up with something that is broadly acceptable to everybody."

Myers said "Clinton will certainly hear" the opposition out, especially during a meeting sched-uled for Monday afternoon with Powell and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "but he's committed to moving forward."

Clinton spokesman George Stephanopoulos told ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley" that Clinton would adhere to his pledge, even in the face of rigorous opposition.

The disclosures came as the debate raged over the new president's proposal. A Newsweek poll released Sunday showed that 53 percent of surveyed Americans think that Clinton should not change the military policy. But 72 percent of those surveyed also said they believed gays can effectively serve in the military if they keep their sexual orientation private.

The poll taken by the Gallup Organization had a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Time Magazine, meanwhile, reported that Powell was "gently making it known that if President Clinton lifts the ban on gays and lesbians in the military, he just might resign."

But a spokesman for Powell, as well as top administration officials, quickly disputed the magazine.

"The report is simply untrue," said Col. Bill Smullen, a spokesman for Powell. "The chairman does not intend to resign over the issue."

Stephanopoulos said, "I don't think it's going to come to that."

And Aspin declared categorically: "Not going to happen. . . . That's not in the cards."

But military officials, including Powell, have opposed lifting the ban, arguing privacy and discipline concerns for enlisted men, as well as security problems for the gays themselves.

Smullen said Powell "feels very strongly" that the current policy should be kept in effect.

The question is yet another issue threatening to divert Clinton from his promise to focus like a "laser" on the economy, and Aspin admitted the battle ahead to win support for lifting the ban could cost dear political capital as the new president is struggling to put forward a new economic plan.

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Clinton had promised to sign an executive order overturning the ban, which Aspin said would be a broadly worded order against discrimination against gays and lesbians in the military.

An accompanying code of conduct would be "spelled out in subsequent kind of regulations" and would include a ban on sodomy, he added.

Congress, however, could overturn such a presidential order.

Aspin, in his memo, called Monday's meeting "not a negotiation . . . (but) a first step in the consultation" process promised by Clinton. He said the administration strategy would involve how best to implement the change by putting in place "strict controls" concerning behavior of any gays allowed into the armed services.

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