Warsaw Pact Leaders Meet Gorbachev in Prague, Endorse Report on Summit

Leaders of the Soviet Union’s six Warsaw Pact allies Thursday endorsed the stand taken by Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev at his summit meeting with President Reagan in Geneva.

The official Soviet news agency Tass said Gorbachev, who met the Communist Party leaders of the six countries in Prague, Czechoslovakia, after leaving Geneva, gave them “a detailed account of the proceedings and results of the Soviet-American summit.”

“The leaders of the fraternal parties and countries voiced full support for the constructive stand presented by Mikhail Gorbachev at his talks with President Reagan,” Tass said.

“It was unanimously noted that the direct and frank discussion which had taken place at the summit had been needed and that its results were useful,” Tass said.

Prague radio had earlier reported that Gorbachev, who stopped over in the Czechoslovak capital on his way home to Moscow, met the other leaders following private talks with Czechoslovak President Gustav Husak.

Dined in Castle

Officials in Prague contacted from Vienna said the leaders later dined in Prague Castle, the cliff-top presidential residence overlooking the city’s snowbound medieval center.

Tass said the leaders agreed that concrete problems of reducing arms were not solved in Geneva but said it was important that the summit reaffirmed the need to stop the arms race on Earth and prevent one in space.

The leaders regarded as “fundamentally important” the U.S.-Soviet joint statement that nuclear war was inadmissible and that each side had renounced military superiority over the other, the agency said.

“On the whole, the results of Mikhail Gorbachev’s meeting with President Reagan create more favorable opportunities for improving the international situation and for a return to detente,” it said.

Leaders Listed

Attending the meeting with Gorbachev were Husak, Todor Zhivkov of Bulgaria, Erich Honecker of East Germany, Janos Kadar of Hungary, Wojciech Jaruzelski of Poland and Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania.

Soviet television said the leaders left Prague after their talks, but there was no immediate announcement that Gorbachev had returned to Moscow.

The pact leaders last conferred in Bulgaria on Oct. 22 and 23. That was Gorbachev’s first working meeting with his allies since he took office last March, although he traveled to Poland in May for ceremonies renewing the Warsaw Pact.

Tass said the leaders agreed that “the Geneva meeting is also very important because it marked the start of a dialogue with a view to achieving changes for the better in Soviet-American relations and in the world in general.”