Reagan’s Talks With Foreign Leaders Taped

The White House acknowledged today that telephone calls between President Reagan and foreign leaders occasionally are tape-recorded and that any such tapes or National Security Council computer-generated memos will be available to the FBI and the Iran- contra affair special prosecutor.

But a White House spokesman described as “completely blown out of perspective” a Washington Post report of the existence of a taping system and NSC computer network that the newspaper said could hold information on White House Situation Room conversations and messages sent by fired National Security Council aide Oliver L. North.

The Post, citing unidentified sources familiar with the sophisticated taping system, said North often used the Situation Room--the White House basement crisis management center--as something of a second office. North is allegedly the key figure in the plan to sell arms to Iran and then use some of the profits to fund the Nicaraguan contra rebels.

Sources cited by the Post, however, did not know whether any meetings relating to the arms deal were recorded.

Other Party Notified

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said presidential phone conversations with foreign leaders are occasionally taped, with knowledge of the other party, by a small recorder in the Situation Room. Speakes said the tape recorder is used only when a language-qualified note taker is not available to monitor the phone call. The recording would then be boiled down to a written memo, Speakes said.

He said there was no Oval Office taping of presidential meetings or other phone conversations.

Speakes also said a video teleconferencing system exists in the Situation Room for meetings of NSC staff members and their counterparts at the Pentagon. However, White House spokesman Dan Howard said the system has been used but rarely and that, while it has the capability to record conferences, no recording has been done.