White House Sends NSC Papers to Senate Arms-Contra Probers

White House aides on Friday sent eight boxes of National Security Council documents to the Senate panel probing the Iran arms- contra aid scandal, a spokesman said.

The action came after President Reagan met with White House special counselor David M. Abshire to review congressional requests for documents that will help the select House and Senate committees sort out possible illegalities or foreign policy miscues in the sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan rebels.

White House spokesman Roman Popadiuk said that for the first time in the regular meetings between Reagan and Abshire, Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan was asked to participate.

Need for Coordination

Popadiuk said that Abshire asked for Regan’s participation “because issues and things were discussed that involve coordination with the White House staff.” He did not elaborate.

He said Abshire told Reagan that he had approved Friday’s shipment of eight boxes of documents to the Senate committee. A senior official said that the boxes contained 3,000 documents examined by the FBI in the days immediately after the Nov. 25 disclosure of the possible diversion of funds to the rebels.

The House committee has already received those documents, the official said.

Popadiuk said Abshire told Reagan that his meetings in recent days with Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), the chairmen of the two committees, had been “constructive and that there was an appreciation for the position the President has taken on his personal notes.”

Notes Were for Memoirs

Reagan agreed earlier this week to turn over the handwritten notes, which he reportedly kept for his memoirs, that are relevant to the investigation.

Popadiuk said that Reagan and Abshire also discussed Wednesday’s scheduled meeting between the President and the three-member panel headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), which is investigating NSC operations. The panel has asked for Reagan’s notes.