Reagan May Break His Silence on Daniloff Case

President Reagan, confronted with an emerging debate within his Administration over efforts to free an American news correspondent held in a Moscow prison, may break his silence on the matter.

A senior Administration official said Thursday that the White House is considering issuing a presidential statement as early as today on the detention of Nicholas Daniloff, a U.S. News & World Report correspondent, to increase pressure on the Soviet Union. Since Daniloff was seized Aug. 30, Reagan--on vacation at his ranch northwest of Santa Barbara--has made no official comment.

Even as White House aides debated whether to issue a presidential statement--thus increasing at least slightly the stakes in what has become a new irritant in U.S.-Soviet relations--the Administration’s handling of the issue was sharply criticized by another senior official, speaking on condition that he not be identified.

‘Confused, Cowardly’

This official, involved in the formulation of U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union, denounced the efforts thus far as “confused and aimless and cowardly.”

The Administration has offered to release to the custody of the Soviet ambassador a Soviet physicist who was arrested in New York on Aug. 23 on charges of espionage if Daniloff is allowed to leave the Soviet Union, officials have disclosed. The Soviet citizen held in New York, Gennady F. Zakharov, an employee of the United Nations, would still be required to face trial in federal court under this proposal.

Officials said Thursday that no word has been received from the Soviet Union on the offer.

‘Do Virtually Nothing’

The official who criticized the Administration’s efforts remarked:

“They arrest one of our citizens and we do virtually nothing about it, except we start dickering about more comfortable conditions for a Soviet agent.

“We are not saying the thing we should be saying, which is, ‘We won’t sit down at the summit with Nick Daniloff in jail.’ ”

The Administration has appeared reluctant to let the incident halt progress in planning for a summit conference later this year of Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. However, a senior White House official has said that the Administration would “dangle” in front of the Soviets the possibility that Daniloff’s continued detention would impair the prospects for the meeting.

In the view of the official familiar with U.S.-Soviet ties, there is little likelihood that the seizure of Daniloff was carried out by the KGB, the Soviet secret police agency, without the approval of the most senior officials in the Kremlin.

New KGB Leader

He pointed out that a new KGB chief has been installed by Gorbachev, and “you don’t go arresting an American on a trumped-up charge without the highest approval.”

Meanwhile, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the owner and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report, said in New York upon his return from a trip to Moscow that the reporter did not want to be swapped in an exchange for the suspected Soviet spy.

He said that Daniloff was buoyed by public support but that the reporter “didn’t feel it was appropriate for him to be swapped for someone clearly involved in espionage.”

“He is no more a spy than John Wayne; no more involved in espionage than Gidget or any of us, and it’s outrageous he’s kept in prison,” Zuckerman said.