London Opens Talks With Tambo

LONDON — A senior government official opened talks today with Oliver Tambo, acting president of the African National Congress, in Britain’s first high-level contact with a black nationalist leader regarded by Pretoria as a terrorist.

The meeting between Lynda Chalker, minister of state, and Tambo was viewed as a slap in the face for South Africa by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s ruling Conservative Party government. An African National Congress spokesman in London said Tambo was joined at the foreign office talks by two key ANC officials: Thabo Mbeki, information chief, and Aziz Pahad, the organization’s minister without portfolio.

Bombs injure 19 in South Africa. Page 2.