Moscow Says ‘Star Wars’ Could Derail Arms Talks : But Reagan is Adament on Program

The United States and the Soviet Union today staked out their positions for next week’s renewed nuclear arms talks, with Moscow warning that U.S. failure to yield on “Star Wars” could lead to the failure of other arms negotiations and President Reagan saying he is determined to pursue the space weapons program.

Reagan told congressional leaders in Washington today that there should be no great expectations of an immediate breakthrough in the talks that will begin Monday in Geneva between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign Ministar Andrei A. Gromyko.

Reagan told the leadership that he is determined to pursue his $26-billion “Star Wars” research program for a space-based defense to knock out missiles after launch.

The Soviets, who possess the only operational anti-satellite system, have the exact opposite objective at Geneva--to limit or kill the U.S. space weapons program.

Not ‘Carried Away’

“The President indicated at the outset we shouldn’t be carried away by what appears in media reports,” Senate Republican leader Robert J. Dole of Kansas said.

“It (the Geneva meeting) is a preliminary discussion, to lay the groundwork for negotiations,” Dole said.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Reagan was “adamant about exploring research about ways to defend our country and others against these weapons (missiles). It is sensible.”

But the Soviets warned today that failure to negotiate an end to the “Star Wars” project could prevent progress in limiting earthbound nuclear weapons. The Novosti news agency urged the United States to suspend research into space-based weaponry.

U.S. ‘Lack of Desire’

“The current meeting in Geneva could open the way to the resumption of the Soviet-American dialogue at a new set of talks on the non-militarization of outer space and the reduction of medium-range and strategic nuclear weapons,” Novosti said.

But, it said, “Washington’s current lack of desire to negotiate a ban on the militarization of outer space could become a major stumbling block in resolving the issues of medium-range and strategic nuclear weapons.”

The Communist Party daily Pravda said in a front-page editorial that the Soviet Union has displayed a readiness to reach agreements in Geneva next week and that concessions are “the business of the American side.”

The unsigned editorial in the authoritative newspaper reinforced the main themes of the Kremlin’s public stand toward the U.S.-Soviet meeting, stressing space weapons as being of “prime significance” and trying to place the responsibility for easing world tensions on the United States.

In Washington, Senate Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia said of the negotiations: “We have to be optimistic. But I expect the Soviets to be hard-line.”