Bonn Offers to Sweep Away Key Obstacle to Arms Pact : Proposes Scrapping Pershings

Chancellor Helmut Kohl conditionally offered today to scrap 72 West German Pershing 1-A missiles the Soviet Union has called the last obstacle to a superpower nuclear disarmament accord.

But Kohl said he would dismantle the German Pershings only after the United States and Soviet Union sign and ratify a treaty, with foolproof verification, for the global removal of all intermediate range missiles, and then stick to their bargain.

The Soviets have demanded at disarmament talks in Geneva that the nuclear-capable Pershings be destroyed as part of a bilateral agreement to scrap all intermediate-range missiles. The United States has insisted that the Pershings are West Germany’s and not subject to the bilateral pact. The United States controls the atomic warheads for the West German missiles.

‘Very Surprising’

In Washington, an Administration official said the Kohl announcement was “surprising, just very surprising.”

The official, speaking on the basis of no further identification, said, “The question is, did he cave under Soviet pressure, U.S. pressure, NATO pressure or pressure from within his own government?”

The official Soviet press agency Tass said that Kohl’s offer was hedged with conditions and that, in making the proposal, he “was trying to shift the blame” onto Moscow for slow progress toward a U.S.-Soviet arms accord.

Kohl said he had been in contact “with the White House” but not with President Reagan since the chancellor returned to Bonn today from a vacation in Austria.

Kohl made his unexpected offer at a Bonn news conference.

Wants to Help President

“I want to help the American President successfully conclude the Geneva talks,” Kohl said. “I want this Administration and this President in this year to conclude an accord because next year there won’t be any chance.”

He warned that the U.S. presidential election campaign would stand in the way of any such disarmament breakthrough in 1988.

The Administration official in Washington said Kohl’s decision appears to remove the last obstacle to an agreement between the superpowers on eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles.

But “in the longer run,” the official said, “it raises a disturbing political issue.”

‘Disturbing Precedent’

“For the first time, a third country has played a pivotal role in bilateral negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union,” he said.

He called it “a disturbing precedent” and a temptation for the Soviets to use pressure against U.S. allies in the future to gain points in bilateral negotiations.

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev had said Tuesday that his country could sign a nuclear disarmament treaty with the United States “even tomorrow” if the German Pershing 1-As are eliminated. The Pershing 1-As, with a range of 460 miles, are in the intermediate-range category.

Kohl said today, “If in Geneva there is an accord between the United States and the Soviet Union on the elimination of medium-range nuclear weapons and this treaty is ratified and goes into effect, then I would be ready to forgo upgrading our rockets and would dismantle them.”

Kohl then called on the Warsaw Pact to forgo the upgrading of their short-range missiles with a reach of under 300 miles. But he did not make this a condition of his Pershing offer.

Kohl said that he had not even discussed his proposal at today’s Cabinet meeting but that he would consult the leaders of his government’s coalition parties on it next Monday.