A contribution of the trivial connection to the Jones polynomial and Witten's invariant of 3d manifolds. Pt. 2

We extend the results of our previous paper (Commun. Math. Phys., 175 (1996), 275) from knots to links by using a formula for the Jones polynomial of a link derived recently by N. Reshetikhin. We establish a relation between the parameters of this formula and the multivariable Alexander polynomial. This relation is illustrated by an example of a torus link. We check that our expression for the Alexander polynomial satisfies some of its basic properties. Finally we derive a link surgery formula for the loop corrections to the trivial connection contribution to Witten's invariant of rational homology spheres. (orig.)