December 16, 1983

Argentina's newly elected Government, seeking breathing space to repay the developing world's third-largest foreign debt, asked its foreign creditors today if it could defer for six months payment of the more than $12 billion that is due in that period. The Government of President Raul Alfonsin, which inherited a $40 billion foreign debt when it took over five days ago, asked a steering committee that represents more than 300 international banks to defer until June 30 the refinancing of nearly $9 billion in debt that was due today. In meetings with bank representatives here and in a telex to the 12- member steering committee in New York, Economics Minister Bernardo Grinspun also asked to put off the payment of nearly $3.5 billion in both overdue interest and new interest that will be due by then. Reactions Mixed The reactions of representatives of the steering committee of American, European and Japanese banks was mixed. They said in interviews that the committee would likely recommend that Argentina's creditors put off the refinancing that was due today but not put off all the interest payments. ''The new Government is being responsible and realistic,'' said one of the representatives. ''It's clear they cannot pay all the interest, but we can't waive it all for six months.''

An article in Sports Pages on Saturday about a three-year contract between the National Basketball Association and its referees incorrectly described the new pay scale.

In the rectory of St. Paul's Church in East Harlem yesterday, Sister Joan Hart took another step toward bringing the Roman Catholic bishops' recent pastoral letter against nuclear arms to the attention of priests working in the field. Sister Hart, who has carried out similar missions in dozens of parishes in the archdiocese since late fall, talked about the letter to nine priests from parishes in the area. Then she asked what she could do, as the head of the archdiocesan office of justice and peace, to help them raise the issue with their parishioners. The priests said the task was difficult in East Harlem because the agonies of daily life often made cosmic issues such as war and peace seem irrelevant. 'Living in the Ruins' ''The bomb has already gone off,'' said the Rev. Ray Byrne, the host pastor. ''Money has been drained away from the poor to build nuclear missiles. We're living in the ruins.''

A picture caption on Wednesday, with an article on the police in Spain, misinterpreted a banner at a police union office. It called for discussions with Interior Minister Jose Barrionuevo.

The last 190 men of the United States combat force in Grenada, along with their commanding general, flew home today, an American spokesman said. That left about 300 American noncombat soldiers to support Caribbean peacekeeping forces here. ''We leave with a great deal of confidence that things are going to be good in Grenada,'' said the commander, Maj. Gen. Jack B. Farris, before trotting across the Cuban-built airstrip at Point Salines to join his men on the C-141 transport plane. ''We wouldn't be leaving if we didn't think the security situation was good.''