August 26, 1982

The International Harvester Company, continuing to pare down in its desperate bid for survival, said today that it had reached an agreement to sell its money-losing construction equipment business to Dresser Industries, a diversified supplier of industrial products and services. Dresser is now caught in the middle of a dispute between the French Government and the Reagan Administration over the sale of equipment for the construction of the controversial gas pipeline from Siberia to Western Europe. The companies did not disclose terms of the sale, but Wall Street analysts said that Dresser would pay about $150 million in cash for the Harvester division. Cash-starved Harvester said the unit had assets of about $580 million, meaning the company would take a big write-off.

The ramp of their low, gray landing craft tapped the quay in Beirut harbor just after dawn today, and United States marines, holding their automatic rifles out in front of them, stepped briskly onto Lebanese soil. For the second time in 24 years, the Marines had landed in Lebanon, this time as part of the multinational force to monitor the withdrawal from west Beirut of the Palestine Liberation Organization's guerrillas trapped there by the Israeli Army. In Full Combat Dress The first 210 debarking marines, of the 800 who will help control the withdrawal, were in full combat dress, their dark green mottled uniforms hung with field packs, spades and ammunition. The young men, looking straight ahead with their helmets low on their foreheads, strode quickly and silently to their positions around the waterfront, where another contingent of guerrillas was due to depart in a few hours.

A Federal judge has found a sheet-metal union local and a group of 121 companies in contempt of court for ''willful disobedience'' of an affirmative-action order to increase the number of nonwhite sheetmetal workers to 29 percent. The defendants were fined a total of $150,000. It was only the second such contempt ruling in eight Federal antidiscrimination cases involving construction unions in New York City in the last 10 years, according to James F. McNamara, the director of the city's Office of Construction Industry Relations. It marked the first time that fines were imposed by the court.

International Israel has begun to release ''sizable'' numbers of the 7,000 Palestinian and other detainees held in southern Lebanon since the Israeli invasion began June 6, according to officials in Jerusalem. The development was one of several that suggested that Israel was now reducing the scope of its operation in Lebanon. (Page A1, Column 1.) American Marines entered Lebanon for the second time in 24 years. The first group of a contingent of 800 marines joined French troops as part of the multinational force that is monitoring the withdrawal of Palestinian guerrillas from west Beirut. (A1:2-3.)

The Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor, County Executive Alfred B. DelBello of Westchester County and Carl McCall, disagreed yesterday on capital punishment, the Westway project, Mayor Koch and other issues. The range of views, offered in a debate at The New York Times, was unusual, since the two Democrats have have no clear-cut ideological conflict. The differences appeared early in the 90-minute meeting, when Mr. DelBello praised Mr. Koch's ''outstanding job as Mayor.'' Mr. McCall, although saying that he did not want to dwell on the Mayor's record, declared that ''much of what he takes credit for was done by the Legislature.'' Mr. McCall, a former State Senator and a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations in 1979-80, has not said whom he would prefer to see as the Democrats' gubernatorial candidate. Mr. Koch and Mr. DelBello have thus far campaigned as a ticket.