Gorbachev Will Not Visit U.N., Hammer Says

Negotiations are under way for a meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, but Gorbachev will not attend a U.N. meeting in New York this September, industrialist Armand Hammer said today.

“There will be a meeting,” Hammer told a news conference after a 1 1/2-hour meeting with Gorbachev. “Just where or when has not yet been determined. The matter is being negotiated right now.”

Gorbachev indicated that he is willing to hold a summit but that it must have an agenda--”something must be accomplished,” Hammer said.

The 87-year-old chairman of Occidental Petroleum said that before coming to Moscow, he met with Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet ambassador to the United States, and was told that Gorbachev would not attend the U.N. session.

He said he suggested to Gorbachev today that a first summit be held in the Soviet Union so Reagan could get to know the Soviet people, with a follow-up summit in Washington.

Hammer, who first visited the Soviet Union in 1921, has maintained personal and business relations with every Soviet leader since V.I. Lenin.

Hammer said he thought U.S.-Soviet relations “are probably at the lowest level I’ve seen in the 60-odd years I have been associated with Russian-American relations.

“But I’m hoping things will improve with Mr. Gorbachev. I’m very impressed with him.”