March 2, 1983

Administration officials told Congress today that El Salvador faced a ''crisis'' and could run out of military supplies in 30 days unless the United States provided an additional $60 million in military aid. At the same time the two officials -Thomas O. Enders, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs and Nestor D. Sanchez, Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Inter-American Affairs - insisted that ''major national interests'' of the United States were at stake in El Salvador. Should the Salvadoran Government be defeated by the guerrillas, the officials said, the result would threaten other nations in Central America as well as Mexico and the Panama Canal. ''We understand the concern of those who remember the specter of Vietnam that the war in El Salvador is being 'Americanized,' '' said Mr. Sanchez, who appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee's panel of Western Hemisphere Affairs. ''But Vietnam was 10,000 miles away. El Salvador is a contiguous region right at our doorstep. San Salvador is closer to Washington, D.C. than is San Francisco.''

TRUCK drivers are an independent, sometimes cantankerous bunch, and they do not agree on much. But many, certainly those who are regulars on Eastern Seaboard runs, do agree on this: the Jarrell Truck Plaza, at the Doswell exit of Interstate 95, a well traveled route that runs 1,700 miles from Houlton, Me., to Fort Pierce, Fla., offers some of the best truck-stop food in America. Jarrell's, which is about 20 miles north of Richmond, offers ribeye steak, chicken-fried steak, fried country ham, pit-cooked barbecue pork, batter-dipped flounder, fried oysters, crab cakes, made-to-order cheeseburgers, mashed potatoes, corn muffins, hush puppies, stewed tomatoes, beans, hot cakes with maple syrup, cream chipped beef on toast or biscuits, eggs with bacon or sausage, pork brains or corned-beef hash, home fries, grits, bread pudding, shortcake, cobbler, pie -about everything, it would seem, that a hungry driver might have a hankering for after a long stint manhandling an 18-wheel tractor-trailer. The establishment is especially noted for its Southern fried chicken, country-style steak, hamburger steak with onions and gravy, and homemade rolls and biscuits. Gordon Taylor, the food-service director and a former trucker himself, takes pride in the food. ''I don't believe anybody can beat my fried chicken, no sir,'' he said. The biscuits seem of fine quality, too, warm, light and flavorful - like grandmothers make.

International Israel turned down a compromise advanced by the United States to resolve some major differences with Lebanon on the terms for an Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon, according to Reagan Administration officials. But they said that the special envoy, Philip C. Habib, would make another attempt to persuade the Israelis to accept the plan when he returns to Israel today. (Page A1, Column 6.) El Salvador faces a ''crisis'' and could run out of military supplies in 30 days unless Washington provides $60 million more in military aid, according to Reagan Administration officials. They insisted that ''major'' American interests were at stake in preventing a Salvadoran rebel takeover. (A1:5.)

Martin S. Feldstein, President Reagan's chief economist, said today that the Administration would revise its forecast for slow economic growth this year to take account of declining oil prices and recent signs that the economy's recovery might be stronger than expected. The Administration's current, slow-growth forecast, which is just a month old, was one of the key projections on which the budget for the 1984 fiscal year was based. But senior Administration officials, notably Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan, have been pushing privately for new projections showing sharper growth in the gross national product in 1983 than the Administration's projection of 3.1 percent. The G.N.P. forecast is a major factor in determining annual budget projections for spending, revenues and the deficit. But Mr. Feldstein said that the revision in the 1983 forecast was not likely to result in much lowering of the $189 billion deficit now projected for the 1984 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. He added that it was also not likely to result in any major change in Administration budget proposals.

With graphic accounts from witnesses, testimony began yesterday in the first trial in the killing of a black transit worker who authorities say was beaten to death by members of a white mob in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn last June. The defendant, 18-year-old Gino Bova, is charged with murder and other crimes. He is the first of four neighborhood youths scheduled to stand trial in the killing of William Turks, 34. Mr. Turks was one of three black men assaulted by what the police have said was a group of 15 to 20 people armed with bottles and a stick and shouting racial epithets. ''This defendant stood out when he took the stick and went over and began beating on William Turks,'' the prosecutor, Andrew Plump, told the jury in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.