Reagan Protests House Arms Curbs

President Reagan protested Saturday that five curbs on his military preparedness program included in the House version of the pending omnibus appropriations bill could “jeopardize the chances for successful discussions with the Soviets” when he meets next weekend in Reykjavik, Iceland, with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Reagan renewed a warning that he would veto the bill--which is expected to provide more than half a trillion dollars to finance government programs at existing levels through the 1987 fiscal year--unless objectionable House provisions are amended when Senate and House conferees reconcile differences between measures passed by the two chambers.

In his regular weekly radio talk--delivered at twice its normal five-minute length from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.--Reagan stressed the importance of national strength and unity in dealings with the Soviet Union.

He called for renewal of the bipartisan support Congress has accorded Presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt in dealings with Moscow, and declared: “I cannot afford to have my hands tied in our discussions” by items in the House bill.

5 Provisions Cited

Reagan asked his listeners and congressional leaders to support White House efforts to get the conference committee to amend House-approved provisions which he said would:

--Ban tests of anti-satellite systems, “even though the Soviets have such a system in operation, and we don’t.”

--Block production of new chemical weapons as “a credible deterrent to modern Soviet chemical weapons.”

--Cut funding for the Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative program, informally known as “Star Wars,” even though it “promotes a safer future and also underpins our negotiating position in Geneva and our hopes for strategic arms reduction.”

--Deny funding for arms proposals that exceed limitations set in the still-unratified SALT II treaty.

--Prohibit “essentially” the testing of all nuclear weapons.

Reagan said each of the issues on which he sought changes was under discussion in talks with the Soviet Union. Thus, he argued, it is important to enact appropriations to sustain them.

“The Soviets must not think that delay could work to their advantage by gaining from the Congress what they could not win at the negotiating table,” he said. Although the United States wants “to work with the Soviet Union to prevent war and maintain peace,” Reagan said, “we harbor no illusions about them or their geopolitical intentions.”

No Mention of Senate Cuts

While he protested the limitations voted by the Democratic-controlled House, Reagan made no mention of cutbacks in “Star Wars” funding that were voted by the Republican-run Senate when it passed its version of the money bill early Friday.

Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento) assured the President in the regular Democratic response to Reagan’s talk that all congressional Democrats will “stand behind you” in the Iceland talks.

“We offer you our prayers and place in you our hopes for an agreement which will reduce world tensions, and upon your return we look forward to working together to solve our problems here at home,” Fazio said. He reiterated Democratic protests that Reagan’s budget priorities have favored defense and foreign aid at the expense of domestic programs.

“You threaten to veto our work unless we give in to your requests for more foreign aid and more defense dollars,” Fazio said. “ . . . Our omnibus budget bill freezes domestic expenditures and asks only for an equal sacrifice on defense spending after years of buildup.”

Gorbachev Letter

The President sketched the way the arrangement for the Iceland meeting grew out of a proposal in a letter to Reagan from Gorbachev which was carried by Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze to negotiations that led to release of Nicholas Daniloff, the U.S. News & World Report correspondent Moscow charged with spying.

In words which contradicted charges by the right wing of his own party that Daniloff’s release resulted from a direct swap of the newsman for Gennady F. Zakharov, a convicted Soviet spy, Reagan said:

“We wanted Daniloff freed with no deals. We had to make clear to them the consequences of their actions. We had to be direct, candid and forceful. And we were. And that’s why Nicholas Daniloff is freed and back in the United States. Later, we swapped Zakharov, the spy, for two noted Russian dissidents, Yuri and Irina Orlov.”