"The industry is placing a large priority on the proposed national settlement," said the analyst, Martin Feldman of Smith Barney.

Q. As part of a proposed legal settlement, the News Corporation has agreed to put its poison pill to a vote at its next annual meeting.

According to the Labor Department, Boeing said it would not comply with its request for information until the worker excluded himself from the proposed private settlement.

He referred to the prospect of other similar costs, including those from state lawsuits in addition to the proposed national settlement of tobacco litigation.

Peter G. Verniero, the New Jersey Attorney General, said that the proposed national settlement, including its anti-advertising provisions, "serves as a very strong basis for national legislation."

The provision permitted tobacco producers to subtract $50 billion from the amount they would pay under a proposed legal settlement with a group of state attorneys general.

Mr. Coles said the city was reserving its right to contest whether the state as a whole is getting its fair share of the proposed national settlement.

The Florida settlement "cannot effect the comprehensive array of public health provisions contained in the proposed national settlement," the companies said.

In last year's budget, the President assumed that the Federal Government would collect $65 billion over five years from a proposed national legal settlement with the tobacco industry.

But the President said he was pleased with the reception even the critics of the proposed legal settlement had given it.