U.S., Soviets to Seek Draft Arms Treaty : Will Speed Work on ‘Mutually Acceptable’ Pact--Shevardnadze

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said U.S. and Soviet negotiators agreed today to try to prepare a “mutually acceptable” draft treaty on intermediate-range nuclear missiles before he meets Secretary of State George P. Shultz next month.

But U.S. negotiator John Woodworth said he will be “surprised” if the two sides complete a draft treaty on such weapons by then.

Shevardnadze told a news conference that the decision on the draft treaty came during his three-hour meeting today with the chief U.S. arms control negotiator, Max Kampelman.

“We agreed that our delegations will try to best use the time available before the meeting--and we don’t have much time before that meeting, only about a month or so--to prepare a mutually acceptable draft treaty on medium-range and shorter-range missiles,” Shevardnadze said.

“We also agreed to intensify the work of our delegations on strategic offensive (long-range) weapons and space.”

Shevardnadze is to meet Shultz on Sept. 15-17 in Washington.

Woodward said the two sides have overcome “the most substantial substantive issues” in the negotiations and are now working on “technical issues.”

Shevardnadze made it clear that the issue of 72 West German Pershing 1-A missiles remain a major sticking point, saying the Soviet Union stands firm in insisting that U.S. nuclear warheads on missiles would have to be destroyed under an agreement.

“They have to be eliminated. It’s that simple,” he said, reiterating remarks he made a day earlier to the U.N. Disarmament Conference. (Story, Page 5.)

Shevardnadze blamed the lack of agreement so far on the U.S. side. He compared the arms negotiations to a two-engine plane--”The U.S.-Soviet negotiations in Geneva are flying on the power of one engine. This is the Soviet engine,” he said.

In a separate news briefing, Kampelman retorted: “I assure you that the United States is not prepared to be an idle passenger.”

Kampelman said the United States will not accept any solution that involved the deployment of new Soviet missiles in other East Bloc countries to offset the aging Pershing 1-As.