RUBBER PRODUCERS, CONSUMERS START NEW PACT TALKS The chairman of the conference on a new International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA), Manaspas Xuto of Thailand, said it was imperative to try to settle the main outstanding issues this week. The INRA renegotiation conference, which resumed today under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), is scheduled to last until March 20. Xuto told delegates this session of the conference presented a promising opportunity to conclude a new pact but it had to be the last before the current accord expires in October. Xuto said in his consultations with representatives of major exporting and importing countries over the last few months, "I have found a constructive attitude and willingness to be flexible on the part of all concerned." "It is imperative that we try to settle the major outstanding issues in the course of this week, since a considerable amount of technical drafting work will remain to be completed." He said he will immediately start consultations with producers and consumers. The last October negotiations collapsed in disagreement over buffer stock operations. Consumer demands for tighter buffer stock controls, aimed at preventing INRA from following the collapse of the International Tin Agreement (ITA), were rejected by producers who argued for unchanged INRA terms. The tin pact failed when its buffer stock manager ran out of funds to support prices. Three previous rounds of talks between rubber producers and consumers for a new five-year pact ended without agreement. The INRA, originally due to expire in October 1985, was extended to October 1987 to facilitate renegotiation. Wong Kum Choon, head of the Malaysian delegation, said he was cautiously optimistic "that together we should be able to save INRA and prevent it from being scuttled." Without INRA, he added, prices of natural rubber would become more volatile. Calling on delegates to show a sense of purpose and reality, he said, "There is no reason why we could not put aside differences and come up with a successor agreement."