Gorbachev Will Attend U.N. Meeting in N.Y., May See Reagan There

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev will attend the next U.N. General Assembly in New York and may meet President Reagan there, the editor of the official newspaper Pravda said today.

In an interview with Reuters, Editor-in-Chief Viktor Afanasiyev said, “I know for sure that Mr. Gorbachev will go to the General Assembly session.”

Western officials have been speculating that Gorbachev might travel to New York for the September session and accept an invitation to meet Reagan while in the United States.

Afanasiyev, who is a senior member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, said the Soviet Union has agreed in principle to a summit “but it is hard to say when this meeting will take place.”

“My personal view is that probably this meeting will take place during the U.N. General Assembly session,” he said.

He added that a Gorbachev-Reagan meeting would have to be well prepared. “Some agreements should be signed. Compromises can be worked out. It’s nonsense to talk about just meeting,” he said.

U.S officials have lately sought to play down hopes of an early summit, saying the two leaders might meet informally in September or October.

In an exchange of letters since Gorbachev succeeded the late President Konstantin U. Chernenko last month, Reagan and the new Kremlin chief have agreed in principle to meet, but no dates or possible sites have emerged.

Afanasiyev has broken news to the Western press on several occasions over the last two years.