The indication that Mr. Bush would ask Congress to ease existing laws in the name of fire-protection angered environmental leaders.

Mr. Gingrich agreed to ease antitrust laws for the ostensible purpose of permitting doctors and hospitals to create their own health plans in competition with traditional insurance companies.

It would ease important environmental laws designed to protect not only the forests but also the legal rights of citizens who care about them.

To the Editor: You report that President Bush wants to ease laws on logging (front page, Aug. 22).

They include apportioning oil revenues through legislation, easing laws that excluded former Baath Party members from government positions and holding provincial elections.

Many states, such as Texas, Washington and Indiana, have eased laws that had made it difficult to commit people involuntarily to hospitals.

In the name of expediting "fuel reduction," the plan would also ease important environmental laws, reduce the opportunity for public comment and restrict judicial review.

While American trade negotiators launched a frontal assault, he quietly pressed the Government to ease laws that had made it next to impossible to build large-scale stores.

That is because, to make it easier for business to cut costs, the Chirac administration has eased laws restricting layoffs.