May 24, 1984

''We can say again today, with greater certainty than ever, that cigarettes are the most important individual health risk in this country, responsible for more premature deaths and disability than any other known agent.

International Efforts to provide Saudi Arabia with 1,200 portable Stinger antiaircraft missiles will be revived, according to State Department officials. They said the Reagan Administration had informed key members of Congress of its plan because of the possibility of Iranian air attacks. The move, they said, was taken in response to an urgent request Tuesday by King Fahd. (Page A1, Column 6.) Iraq will continue its blockade of Iran's main oil terminal at Kharg Island, President Saddam Hussein said in an address in Baghdad. (A10:1.)

The Reagan Administration told key members of Congress today that it planned to try again to send Saudi Arabia 1,200 portable Stinger antiaircraft missiles to defend against possible Iranian air attacks, State Department officials said. The officials said the move was made in response to an urgent request from King Fahd of Saudi Araiia, who met on Tuesday in Riyadh with Richard W. Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs. Mr. Murphy conveyed a message from President Reagan offering to help meet Saudi requests for help. Procedure Not Decided A Senate aide said the White House had not decided whether to make the sale under the routine procedure of notifying Congress 30 days in advance or to use a special provision of the law, which allows the President to provide military equipment immediately when he deems it in the national interest. Officials said Secretary of State George P. Shultz and others in the Administration had recommended proceeding with the request for the Stingers, valued at $140 million, to show continued American backing for the Saudis at a time of potential conflict with Iran.

The Beatrice Foods Company has reached an agreement to buy Esmark Inc., the huge Chicago conglomerate, for $60 a share, or about $2.9 billion, in cash, food industry sources disclosed last night. The price -- believed, to be the least Esmark would take to guarantee acceptance -- would be $4 a share more than the $2.5 billion that Beatrice had offered only two days earlier. In anticipation of a higher offer, Esmark's shares advanced $2.125, to $58.375, on the New York Stock Exchange, with nearly 1.9 million shares changing hands. Beatrice's shares fell 87 1/2 cents, to $28.375.

In coming weeks, as the battle to carve up a market previously dominated by the American telephone and Telegraph Company enters a decisive phase, phone subscribers in the New York area will be asked to decide which company they want to use for long-distance calls. The selection process is part of Long Distance Equal Access, a plan being phased in over the next three years under the court-ordered breakup of A.T.&T. Under the equal access plan, all long-distance companies will offer the ease of dialing and quality of connection that, until now, only A.T.&T. has had, and customers will have to designate one of them as their primary carrier. At present, customers who use a carrier other than A.T.&T. -- such as MCI or GTE Sprint -- must dial the seven digit local number of that company as well as a multidigit personal access code before making a long-dsitance call. Those calls can be made only from a push-button phone or with an adapter the size of a pocket calculator.