Top-Level Talk With Nicaragua Being Sought, State Dept. Says

The State Department said Thursday that it is attempting to arrange a high-level meeting with Nicaragua’s Marxist- led regime, a shift from the Reagan Administration’s previous refusal to enter into talks with the Sandinistas.

Department spokesman Joseph Reap said that U.S. officials approached the Nicaraguans several weeks ago to try to arrange a meeting with Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto at the United Nations but that the two sides could not agree on details.

“We are currently exploring the possibility of a substitute meeting at an appropriate level,” Reap said.

If a meeting is arranged, it would be the first such high-level contact since the Reagan Administration in January broke off a series of intermittent talks between envoys of the two nations in Manzanillo, Mexico. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega tried to arrange a meeting with President Reagan at the United Nations this week but was refused an appointment by the White House. He did, however, greet the President in a reception line Wednesday night.

When the Manzanillo talks ended, Administration officials said that U.S. allies in Central America feared that the Sandinistas were seeking a secret bilateral deal with Washington.

Since then, a State Department official said, Mexico and Colombia--members of the Contadora Group of four Latin nations trying through mediation to achieve a Central American peace treaty--have urged the Administration to reopen talks with Nicaragua.

‘We Want . . . Dialogue

“Our policy hasn’t changed,” the official said. “The Sandinistas aren’t going to hear anything different from what they’ve heard before. . . . But other countries wanted us to meet with them. And it seemed to be about time to let them know from the horse’s mouth that we want them to start a dialogue with the (Nicaraguan) opposition.”

He said the State Department’s special Central America negotiator, Ambassador Harry W. Shlaudeman, may go to Nicaragua for the talks, although no time or place has been set.