ROME : Alliance Test?

Foreign affairs head the agenda as the heads of the 12 European Community nations meet in the Italian capital this weekend.

It will be the first time the EC leaders have a chance to collectively discuss the Persian Gulf crisis--including the sensitive issue of linkage between a Palestinian settlement and an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. Washington adamantly opposes such a linkage, but some Europeans are more sympathetic to the idea.

Also on the agenda: enhanced political cooperation with the Soviet Union, ending economic sanctions against South Africa, normalizing relations with Iran, and defining the rights of immigrants from outside the EC to public services and, ultimately, to citizenship in member countries.