Techniques for sending signaling messages in a wireless communication network are described. In an aspect, a signaling message (e.g., a reduce interference request) may be sent by mapping it to at least one specific subcarrier among a set of subcarriers reserved for sending the signaling message. The at least one subcarrier may be selected based on the message value. A signal may be sent on the at least one subcarrier in multiple symbol periods to convey the signaling message. In another aspect, a reduce interference request may be sent based on an orthogonal resource among orthogonal resources available for sending reduce interference requests. In one design, an orthogonal sequence may be selected based on the request and may be spread across a resource segment. In another design, the reduce interference request may be processed to obtain modulation symbols, and each modulation symbol may be spread across multiple subcarriers in one symbol period.