Noriega agreed, Blandon said, and the guerrillas were trained at two Panamanian bases.

Noriega later offered to send Panamanian soldiers inside Nicaragua to conduct "terrorist sabotage" against the Sandinistas, Blandon said. North answered that he had no authority to accept such an offer but would relay it to his bosses at the National Security Council.

Blandon didn't indicate if Noriega's plan was ever put into effect.

Noriega didn't make any specific request for a return favor, Blandon said. But he later renewed his assertion that Noriega headed a "criminal empire" that dealt in drugs with the knowledge of U.S. officials.

Both North and his former boss at the National Security Council, Rear Adm. John Poindexter, are targets of an investigation by the independent counsel in the Iran-Contra affair.

Blandon told the Foreign Relations panel that Noriega met in December, 1985 in Panama with Poindexter, who had just taken over as President Reagan's national security adviser.

Noriega asserted last week that Poindexter talked at that meeting about plans for a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua, but Blandon disputed that. No such plans were discussed, he said.

The Bush warning was passed to Castro two or three hours before the Oct. 25, 1983, invasion of the Caribbean island nation, Blandon said.

He explained that Bush's office called him and asked him to relay the message to Castro through Noriega. Castro later called Noriega and received the warning, Blandon said.