Gorbachev Assures Kadafi of New Soviet Defense Help

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev assured Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi on Wednesday that the Soviet Union will help strengthen Libya’s defenses in the wake of a U.S. bombing raid.

In a letter to Kadafi published by Tass, the official Soviet news agency, Gorbachev expressed solidarity against “American imperialism’s bandit crime.” But the Soviet leader made no mention of direct Soviet military intervention or the impact of the U.S. raid on plans for a second Soviet-American summit conference this year.

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman was summoned to the Soviet Foreign Ministry, which protested the American bombing and warned of damage to Soviet-American relations.

British Envoy Summoned

British Ambassador Bryan G. Cartledge was called in separately to hear a Soviet protest over his government’s allowing the attacking U.S. aircraft to take off from British air bases.

On Tuesday, the Soviet government canceled a May meeting at which details and timing of a summit conference were to have been worked out.

Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, who is visiting Moscow, said he does not see how Gorbachev can meet with President Reagan this year in light of the Libyan raid, which Carlsson’s government has condemned as illegal.

Carlsson made the statement at a news conference. On Tuesday he conferred for more than six hours with Gorbachev and other high Soviet officials. He declined to say how Gorbachev reacted to the U.S. raid.

‘Moral, Political Defeat’

In his letter to Kadafi, Gorbachev said the United States failed to bring Libya to its knees and suffered “a new moral and political defeat” by arousing worldwide anger and indignation.

“The United States again stands for all to see as the main culprit of the escalation of international tension, irresponsibly playing with the fate of millions of people for the sake of satisfying its imperial ambitions,” he said.

But Gorbachev’s words about any Soviet action were more restrained.

“I would like to assure you,” he said, “that the Soviet Union firmly intends to fulfill its commitments in terms of further strengthening Libya’s defense capability. And this, as we see it, is of special importance for your country in the present situation.”

The Soviet leader gave no details.

Chief Arms Supplier

Moscow is Libya’s chief arms supplier and has provided missiles for Libya’s coastal and air defenses.

Vladimir Lomeiko, chief spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, ridiculed Reagan’s assertions that the United States was acting in self-defense in attacking terrorist bases in Libya.

Embassies Damaged

Lomeiko said American bombs had damaged the embassies of Japan, France and Switzerland. “Are these bases of terrorism?” he asked.

He charged that Reagan made “a blasphemy of common sense” by insisting that the attack by a superpower on a small country thousands of miles away was related to the needs of U.S. self-defense.