Reagan to Hold News Conference Thursday

President Reagan will hold a nationally broadcast news conference at 5 p.m. PDT Thursday, the White House said today--his first in the United States in more than seven months when the Iran- contra arms deal unraveled into a full-blown scandal.

Reagan’s most recent question-and-answer session with the press corps came when he briefly fielded reporters’ questions in Venice, Italy, on June 11 at the end of the seven-nation economic summit.

Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Reagan will be prepared to deal with questions on any subject.

He did not say whether Reagan will have anything to announce at the outset of the nationally televised news conference.

Asked whether Reagan would announce a date for a summit with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, in view of the move by the two superpowers toward agreement on the final details of a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons, Fitzwater said:

“It’s not the reason for calling the press conference.”

Reagan has had only one formal East Room press conference this year, and that was held on March 19, four months after Reagan’s last previous news conference.

Questions about the Iran-contra scandal dominated the March session, but there has been little public discussion of the affair in recent weeks as a joint House-Senate investigative committee drafts its final report.