Commercially available benzophenone imine serves as a convenient ammonia equivalent in the palladium-catalyzed amination of aryl halides and triflates. The benzophenone imine adducts can be cleaved directly to the corresponding primary anilines by catalytic hydrogenation or treatment with hydroxylamine hydrochloride or a catalytic amount of HCl in wet THF. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.