Hope on Deadlock Seen by Gorbachev : Cites ‘Concrete’ Arms Ideas He Sent to Reagan

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Tuesday that he hopes that his recent letter to President Reagan, containing new proposals for curbing nuclear weapons, will break the deadlock in U.S.-Soviet arms control talks.

In a speech to several hundred workers at a Warsaw factory, Gorbachev struck a conciliatory tone that was notably free of the verbal assaults on Washington that have marked recent Soviet statements on arms control.

“A few days ago, I sent a letter to the President with concrete proposals on how to take the matter (of arms control) out of the deadlock and to begin, at last, removing the mountain of arms,” Gorbachev said.

‘Hopefully’ Await Agreements

Raising the prospect of a second summit meeting with Reagan, he added that “we hope the American Administration will join us in our initiatives and make possible the holding of a meeting and the drafting of agreements for which the peoples of Europe and the whole world wait hopefully.”

In Moscow, the news agency Tass published the text of Gorbachev’s remarks, indicating their official nature.

The letter that Gorbachev referred to in his speech was delivered June 23 when the new Soviet ambassador to Washington, Yuri V. Dubinin, met for 40 minutes with Reagan.

Neither American nor Soviet officials have disclosed details of the letter’s contents. However, U.S. officials have said it contains promising indications of Soviet flexibility on the problem of medium-range missiles--a prime sticking point in arms talks for more than five years. They have described the letter as “generally positive.”

Gorbachev’s diplomatic tone on Tuesday contrasted with the customary style of Soviet rhetoric that marked his speech on Monday to the Polish Communist Party’s 10th congress.

‘Open Obstruction’

In that speech, he accused Washington of “open obstruction” and “sabotage” of the Geneva arms talks, lashed out at the “adventuristic, destructive nature . . . of American imperialism” and dismissed U.S. allegations of Soviet treaty violations as laughable.

In Tuesday’s remarks to workers at Warsaw’s Swierczewski precision machine tool factory, Gorbachev avoided all such rhetoric and referred to the President as “Mr. Reagan.”

“Peaceful coexistence between states of the socialist and the capitalist worlds is possible,” Gorbachev maintained. “Moreover, it is necessary. There is no other reasonable alternative in existence.”

Gorbachev referred to Reagan’s own conciliatory statement on arms control, at Glassboro, N.J., on June 19, in approving terms.

Glassboro was the site of a 1967 summit meeting of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin that led to the 1972 U.S.-Soviet treaty limiting anti-ballistic missiles. The Soviets now seek to prolong that treaty by at least 15 years in the hope of postponing or halting the American development of defensive weapons in space.

‘Talk ... Is Not Enough’

“President Reagan, speaking recently at Glassboro, admitted, though not without reservations, the seriousness of our new proposals for reducing nuclear armaments,” Gorbachev said. “Mr. Reagan remarked correctly that talk alone is not enough.”

In Washington, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the United States will reply to the Soviet initiative when the next round of arms limitation talks begin in Geneva in September.

“We’re preparing very carefully a reply to the proposal which would be presented in September, and we would hope the Soviets are prepared to negotiate seriously. . . . We’re not going to discuss it at Geneva before the talks convene,” he said. However, he added that the United States might reply “in some other forum.”

With Jaruzelski, Guards

Gorbachev, accompanied by Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski and a swarm of plainclothes security guards, walked quickly through the factory Tuesday. He examined production shops and talked briefly but easily with workers about economic reforms, working conditions and what he called the factory’s exemplary cooperation with Soviet industry.

Workers interviewed later said only about 400 of the factory’s 3,000 employees and managers were invited to attend the session.

In contrast with his recent trips to East Berlin and Budapest, Hungary, Gorbachev did not bring his wife, Raisa, and he did not stroll through downtown streets chatting with passers-by and examining store windows.

Western diplomats said the heavy security surrounding the Soviet leader’s motorcade and sessions of the party congress indicated that Polish authorities were concerned that the outlawed Solidarity opposition might try to embarrass them with a protest banner or leaflets. But no such incidents occurred during Gorbachev’s four-day visit.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster, in Washington, contributed to this article.