January 2, 1984

The Reagan Administration has decided to seek a $200 million increase in the Justice Department's budget for next year, according to department officials. Congressional approval of the expected request for the fiscal year 1985, which starts Oct. 1, would bring the Justice Department's budget to approximately $3.57 billion, nearly 6 percent more than this year. Most of that money, officials said, would go toward criminal justice, including the hiring of new agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, an expansion of Federal prosecutors' offices around the country and the building of new prison space. Since President Reagan took office in 1981, the department has gained a 43 percent budget increase, excluding the new request.

The New York Times today publishes an interview with Senator Gary Hart, another in a series of interviews with candidates for the Presidency. In the interview Senator Hart made these major points: Economy - He called for Government policies to lead basic industries to modernize and to train workers, and a jobs program.

Leftist guerrillas destroyed El Salvador's largest bridge today after routing several hundred Government troops assigned to guard it. ''The loss of this bridge was a serious setback for the economic activities of this country,'' the Defense Ministry said, adding that motorists could still cross the river using a nearby dam. The quarter-mile long Cuscatlan bridge was the last suspension bridge open to motorists traveling between the eastern and western parts of the country. Army Base Is Overrun Its destruction was the second major defeat for Government troops in less than 72 hours. Two days ago guerrilla forces overran the country's fourth largest army base, occupying it for 12 hours before withdrawing.

A Nigerian Army general announced today that he had assumed authority in the aftermath of the military overthrow of the country's civilian Government on Saturday. Speaking on a Nigerian radio broadcast monitored here, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Buhari said the new ''federal military Government'' had taken over ''to save this nation from imminent collapse.'' He said that Nigerians had been living under ''difficult and degrading conditions.'' The general, who served as Oil Minister in Nigeria in the 1970's and most recently commanded an armored division, said that ''after due consultation among the services of the armed forces,'' he had been ''formally invested with authority as the head of the federal military Government and the Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.''

The Reagan Administration is applying heavy economic and diplomatic pressure to persuade Japan to end commercial whaling. The amount of fish Japanese ships are allowed to catch in United States waters has been sharply reduced because the Japanese did not agree to observe an international moratorium on whale killing, scheduled to begin in 1985. And, when President Reagan visited Japan recently, Secretary of State George P. Shultz pressed the matter in a meeting with the Foreign Minister. Conservationists in the United States say the Administration's actions are forcing a consensus in Japan to accept the moratorium, though Japanese officials disagree.