SATELLITE ISSUE DIVIDES OFFICIALS.(MAIN)

Byline: New York Times

WASHINGTON -- Top intelligence and security officials in the Clinton administration are divided over whether two U.S. satellite companies illegally gave space expertise to China.

A classified report by the CIA concluded that the companies, Loral Space and Communications and Hughes Electronics, did not reveal information to China in 1996 that could harm national security, government and congressional officials said on Friday.

But the intelligence arm of the State Department found just the opposite -- that U.S. security had been jeopardized, the officials said in disclosing the report's findings for the first time. The State …