by Sarah Jackson-Han

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (AFP) - Bowing to intense pressure from Congress, overseers of a new government-funded broadcasting service have restored its original name, Radio Free Asia, days before its debut transmission to China.

Richard Richter, president of the service, said the Broadcasting Board of Governors informed him Monday of its decision to drop the name Asia-Pacific Network in favor of Radio Free Asia, endorsed by legislators when they voted to fund the service last year.

The board rejected "Radio Free Asia" last November on grounds it suggested an unnecessarily confrontational stance toward the Asian countries, many of them communist, to which the service will broadcast.

In reversing that decision on Monday, Richter said, "They were actually reversing themselves."

The move, days before the service is to make its first-ever broadcast, follows months of arm-twisting by Republican legislators, many of whom strongly support the anti-communist connotations of Radio Free Asia.

That name harkens back to Radio Free Europe, which began transmitting news and commentary to the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries during the Cold War.

Radio staff insist nonetheless that their coverage will be objective, notwithstanding the name change. Richter in particular feels strongly that any hint of bias risks undermining the credibility of the service with it Asian listeners.

Republican congressional staff were elated. "We think it's great," one aide said of the name change. "This is something where they were just way out of line, and people were furious."

The dispute was resolved earlier this week under Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms, a senior Republican senator from North Carolina and staunch anti-communist, the aide said.

Radio Free Asia's first program is scheduled to air in Mandarin from 7:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Monday Beijing time (2300 GMT Sunday). Content of the program will depend largely on breaking news of the day, Richter said.

The Mandarin-language service will eventually be expanded to five-and-a-half hours daily, with other broadcasts to follow targetting Tibet, Cantonese-speaking China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, and Vietnam.

Representative Chris Smith, who keeps an eye on government-funded broadcasting as chairman of the House Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, welcomed the move.

"Some government officials have criticized 'Radio Free Asia' as too confrontational, but the success of Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and Radio Marti has come precisely because they have been willing to be confrontational, to take sides ... between tyranny and freedom," Smith said.

Radio Liberty and Radio Marti broadcast to Europe and Cuba, respectively.

"This is not at all inconsistent with accomplished, professional journalism," he added. "Frankly, 'Asia-Pacific Network' seems to have been chosen by people who were unenthusiastic about the whole idea when you want to kill something you begin by making it irrelevant."

Richter aims to make the new service, technically a private corporation funded by about 10 million dollars yearly in federal grants, a "university of the air" broadcasting cultural programs as well as hard news.

Through their official media, China, North Korea, Burma, and Vietnam have all criticized Radio Free Asia at various times since it was first suggested following China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Recently, however, the project appears to have generated far greater controversy in Washington than in Asian capitals such as Beijing, Rangoon, and Pyongyang all of which are expected to try to block domestic reception of Radio Free Asia broadcasts.

Radio Free Asia aims to complement the much larger Voice of America (VOA), which is funded and managed by the US government, by focusing specifically on each target country and skipping VOA's emphasis on world news.