  % A new, formal, non-combinatorial approach to invariants of %
three-dimensional manifolds of Reshetikhin, Turaev and % Witten in the
framework of non-perturbative topological % quantum Chern-Simons theory,
corresponding to an arbitrary % compact simple Lie group, is presented. A
direct % implementation of surgery instructions in the context of % quantum
field theory is proposed. An explicit form of the % specialization of the
invariant to the group SU(2) is % derived, and shown to agree with the result
of Lickorish. % % AMS subject classifications (1991): 57M25, 57N10, 57R65,
81T13.
