Hospitals, businesses and parts of China's vast interior are unprepared for year-end computer problems, although banks, electric power and other vital sectors are basically ready, a senior government troubleshooter said Wednesday. With less than 31 days to go before the new year, the assessment given by China's top co-ordinator for Year 2000 computer glitches was the frankest admission by the government that troubles are certain to arise even if they are scattered. ''China is a big country with more than 30 provinces and over 1.2 billion people. So it's hard to get a complete picture in resolving Year 2000 problems, and there are areas we do not understand,'' Ms Zhang told a news conference with senior officials from the banking, aviation, electric power and telecoms sectors.

President Clinton has already made plans to declare a national emergency because of expected disruptions caused by the Y2K computer problem, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency documents. A final training session followed by a mock Y2K disaster exercise will include the actual disruptions and problems that Y2K emergency planners believe will take place during the change to the New Year. Plans for the emergency declaration were made known to Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and other federal employees in preparation for use of the Information Coordination Center, set up by the President's Council on the Year 2000 conversion. The plans were also given to the Senate Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.

The staff on hand at the Information Coordination Center have been told to expect a presidential declaration of a national emergency. FEMA staff who will run the regional emergency operation centers have also been told the same thing. "Should it become necessary, a presidential 'emergency,' rather than a 'major disaster,' will be declared, and assistance will be focused on addressing threats to life, health, safety, and property," the Senate committee was told in a report from Lacy E. Suiter from the Response and Recovery Directorate of FEMA. "The emergency management community may be facing a potential disruption scenario that it has not dealt with before: simultaneous disruptions in all 50 States and six territories that may require federal emergency declarations." A national emergency will be declared because FEMA officials have concluded that there will be more than 50 simultaneous Y2K-related disruptions throughout the country, which will stretch the nation's local, state and national emergency resources to the limit.

The anticipation of a multitude of simultaneous problems that would stretch the ability of the government to respond is the driving force behind the plans for declaration of a national emergency. Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, told WorldNetDaily there is a very real fear that the enemies of the United States could conduct domestic terrorist attacks because they will expect the country to be weakened due to the military's having to deal with Y2K disruptions. He said there is also a possibility that cyber-terrorism attacks might even try to sabotage computers to create what appear to be Y2K computer failures, in order to enhance opportunities for terrorists to conduct further attacks on U.S. cities.

Iran has warned its people to expect the millennium bug to strike hard. "It is expected that with the arrival of the year 2000 some unexpected incidents may happen and some public services may be disrupted," officials said. Mohammad Sepehri-Rad, head of the Supreme Council for Information Technology, told Iranian television the bug could shut down the oil, electricity, communications, transport and health sectors. Diplomats said the Iranian warning was meant more for international consumption and signalled that efforts to revamp the nation's computer system did not succeed. They said a disruptions in Iran's petroleum industry will have international repercussions.

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The worst thing about Y2K may not be Y2K at all.

Hackers and hoaxers who want to inflict computer mayhem and blame it on the Millennium Bug might be the greatest threat, say top cyber-cops and computer security experts. Some of the recent activity, such as computer viruses posing as Y2K fixes, may amount to nothing more than millennial mischief by trouble-minded hackers.

But the FBI and U.S. Senate are painting dire scenarios of foreign programmers sucking U.S. business secrets through ''trap doors'' planted in repaired software. And the chief researcher for the Symantec AntiVirus Research Center has warned that as many as 200,000 new viruses could be unleashed around Jan. 1.

In their rush to avert Y2K failures, many companies neglected to screen Y2K contractors or double-check their work - inviting disaster, experts warn. These software repairmen often have access to an organization's most sensitive systems. Authorities are especially nervous because they don't know how many foreigners have been given the keys to the corporate computer kingdom.

''What bothers people in law enforcement is, the door's been open too long without stringent controls,'' said Bill Spernow, a computer security expert with the Gartner Group, a technology consulting group. ''It's like going to the local area where gangs hang out and saying, 'How'd you like to tour my house and see everything valuable?'''

As with all things Y2K, the line between fact and fantasy is frighteningly fuzzy - and controversial.

Just as nobody can really say whether the ''00'' in 2000 will throw computers for a globe-wrenching loop - the so-called Millennium Bug - hacker trackers can only emphasize what might be. And it might be a long wait before they know if they're right.

''I think we won't know for hours, days, or even weeks in some cases whether something's a Y2K failure, or a virus, or a maliciously caused failure, or a good old failure like the ones we have every day,'' said Bruce McConnell of the Y2K Cooperation Center, a United Nations-supported agency funded by the World Bank.

Right now, it's the potential for trouble that makes experts jittery. If nothing else, Y2K may expose the Achilles heel of a wired world.

WASHINGTON  - Doubts surround air-travel safety in about 30 countries in the absence of Year 2000 readiness information, and the United States should consider steps to press the issue, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.

At issue is the failure of many countries -- mainly in Africa, Asia and the Pacific -- to reply to a Y2K readiness survey of the 185-member, Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations.

They were: Albania, Angola, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Cambodia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Libya, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mozambique, Myanmar, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Vietnam and Western Samoa.

Mead said numerous other countries failed to give sufficient information to allow for adequate Year-2000 readiness assessments.