U.S. Rejects Call for New Nicaragua Talks

Eight Latin American nations urged the Reagan Administration on Thursday to reopen direct peace talks with Nicaragua, but Secretary of State George P. Shultz rejected the appeal.

The diplomatic initiative was presented to Shultz by ambassadors of the four countries of the Contadora Group, which has been trying for three years to produce a negotiated settlement of Central American conflicts, and their counterparts from four other nations that got together last year as the Contadora support group. These eight said that new U.S. talks with Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista regime would contribute to a peaceful solution to Central America’s problems.

But a State Department spokesman said that Shultz and Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams turned down the request. “Our position hasn’t changed,” spokesman Gregory Lagana said.

U.S. Accusations

Shultz and other Administration officials have accused the Nicaraguans of seeking a separate peace pact with the United States as a means of avoiding talks with their Central American neighbors through the Contadora Group.

The four Contadora nations, who named their group for the Panamanian resort island of Contadora where they first met to discuss Central American troubles in January, 1983, have several times declared--to no avail--that they would welcome a renewal of the U.S.-Nicaraguan bilateral talks.

The United States and Nicaragua conducted direct negotiations from June, 1984, until January, 1985, when the talks, held periodically in Manzanillo, Mexico, were broken off by the Reagan Administration.

President Reagan has declared that the Sandinistas should negotiate with U.S.-funded Nicaraguan rebels to arrange new elections that would give the rebels, known as contras, a chance to win power by democratic means. The Sandinistas have rejected that idea.

The Administration is preparing to ask Congress for at least $30 million in U.S. military aid for the contras in addition to the non-military aid they now receive, Administration and congressional sources have said.

‘Open a Dialogue’

“Reopening bilateral talks now, without any specific moves toward internal reconciliation in Nicaragua, would simply reward the Sandinistas’ intransigence,” a State Department official argued. “The Sandinistas have no interest in pursuing any settlement that would jeopardize their control. They have no interest in genuine democracy. . . . Our position is that the first thing they ought to do is open a dialogue with (the contras).”

The Contadora Group’s draft peace plan includes a call for internal negotiations between governments and rebels throughout Central America, but it puts more emphasis on ending foreign aid to rebels and withdrawing foreign troops from the area. Cuba has sent troops to Nicaragua, and the United States has military advisers in El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica.

The four Contadora nations are Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela. The support group is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay. All eight governments joined in the appeal to Shultz, a State Department official said.