No Deal on Pershings, Weinberger Says

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger said Sunday that West Germany’s Pershing 1-A missiles and their U.S.-controlled nuclear warheads will not become a bargaining tool in U.S.-Soviet arms-reduction talks.

“The German Pershings are not on the table,” Weinberger said on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley” when he was asked about recent Soviet arms proposals.

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said last week that the Soviet Union would agree to a worldwide ban on U.S. and Soviet medium-range and shorter-range missiles. Moscow had previously insisted on keeping 100 mid-range warheads in Asia.

Soviet officials said subsequently that the U.S. warheads designed to fit West German Pershing 1-A missiles must also be destroyed.

But Weinberger said the Soviet leader had given prior assurances to President Reagan that the Soviet Union would not try to eliminate the shorter-range West German missiles.

Weinberger said the Soviet proposals for a worldwide ban on medium- and shorter-range missiles were significant and could make verification of a possible U.S.-Soviet arms agreement easier.

Newsweek magazine, meanwhile, reported Sunday that Washington, responding to the new Soviet arms proposal, is prepared to waive the right to convert longer-range Pershing 2 missiles or ground-launched cruise missiles into shorter-range systems for deployment in Europe.