Summit Hopes Fade as U.S. Insists on D.C.

Prospects for a fall summit between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev dimmed today, with the White House returning to its insistence on a Washington site while acknowledging that no date or place has been set.

“The situation has not changed substantially,” spokesman Larry Speakes said, refusing to respond to reports that Washington has received signals that Gorbachev will not visit the United Nations this fall. There has been speculation that the United Nations was a likely meeting place for a summit.

“The President has invited Gorbachev to a meeting,” Speakes said. “Gorbachev has agreed that a meeting would be useful. No decision has been made on timing or venue.”

He said there has been “no change in our position that the meeting should be held in Washington.”

In recent weeks, some Administration officials have indicated that they would rather not have a summit meeting at the United Nations, and appeared to become more insistent on Washington as the site.

No Progress at Vienna

Secretary of State George P. Shultz met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko in Vienna last week, and reports emanating from those talks indicated there was no progress in setting up a Reagan-Gorbachev summit.

The Washington Post reported today that “signals” that Gorbachev plans no U.N. trip emerged during the Shultz-Gromyko meeting. The newspaper said other unidentified sources confirmed that prospects for a Gorbachev visit were dim.

Viktor Afanasyev, editor of the Communist Party newspaper Pravda, told Reuters news agency in Moscow last month that Gorbachev would visit the United Nations this fall.

Administration officials had speculated that the Soviet leader would visit New York in September or October for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly or ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of the world body. While on his recent 10-day European visit, Reagan said Gorbachev’s visit was “probable.”

Reagan said he had extended an invitation to the Soviet leader and that, “if he was going to be (in New York), the door was open for a meeting between us.”