Won’t Be Rushed Into Arms Pact, Reagan Says : As President Leaves Moscow, Gorbachev Calls for Faster Progress on Improving U.S.-Soviet Ties

President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, their summit talks behind them, parted company in the heart of the Kremlin on a dreary, overcast Thursday morning after delivering glowingly upbeat reports on the future of superpower relations.

But, despite the optimistic note on which the meeting ended, Gorbachev prodded Reagan for speedier progress, and the President said later that the United States will not be rushed into reaching a strategic arms control agreement with the Soviet Union.

Reagan was barely airborne aboard Air Force One before White House aides, although trying to take none of the sheen off the five-day visit to Moscow, were cautioning that progress will be slow. Barring unforeseen breakthroughs, they said, no major agreement in the extremely difficult realm of limiting long-range nuclear arms is likely before Reagan’s term ends next January.

The President, accompanied by his wife, Nancy, stopped in London on Thursday for tea with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and dinner with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Reagans are scheduled to return to Washington this afternoon, completing a 10,705-mile, 10-day journey.

At a friendly farewell ceremony in the Kremlin’s Hall of St. George, Gorbachev reviewed not only the just-concluded talks but the course of U.S.-Soviet relations during his three years in office. He told Reagan:

“We’ve come a long way. Our dialogue has not been easy, but we mustered enough realism and political will to overcome obstacles and divert the train of Soviet-U.S. relations from a dangerous track to a safer one.”

Pushing the President to quicken the pace of progress, he said those relations have “so far been moving much more slowly than is required by the real situation, both in our two countries and in the whole world.”

“Over the past three years,” he went on, “our two nations have come to know each other better. They have now taken a really good look in each other’s eyes and have a keener sense of the need to live together on this beautiful planet Earth.”

The 77-year-old Reagan, looking wan but emotional at the conclusion of his first trip to the Soviet Union and what he called “this summit in this Moscow spring,” responded by saying that “our efforts during these past few days have slayed a few dragons and advanced the struggle against the evils that threaten mankind--threats to peace and to liberty.”

In the Kremlin hall named for the Order of St. George, who, according to a 6th-Century legend killed a dragon, Reagan declared, “I would like to hope that, like St. George, with God’s help, peace and freedom can prevail.”

Referring to the crowds of Muscovites who had caught his attention as he drove about the city, he told Gorbachev:

“At first, more than anything else, they were curious faces, but as the time went on, the smiles began, and then the waves. And I don’t have to tell you, Nancy and I smiled back and waved just as hard.”

Notwithstanding the optimistic remarks--and the red roses that Raisa Gorbachev presented to Nancy Reagan on Thursday--White House officials traveling with Reagan made it clear that the summit, which began Sunday, may have been long on sunny atmospherics but short on specific areas of accomplishment.

One official who had been closely involved in the talks said: “We came out with our positions intact, and we didn’t give up anything we thought was important.”

Another official commented that the Soviets “tried to snooker us” but failed, suggesting that by avoiding any potholes, the United States could pronounce the summit a success.

Still, this official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to two areas in which he said concrete progress was made:

-- The two sides raised the possibility of setting a target date of Sept. 29 for an agreement on the withdrawal of Cuban troops who are helping the Soviet-supported government of Angola resist a guerrilla force backed by South Africa.

-- The Soviets, “clearly interested in being on the fringes” of the Middle East peace process, agreed that senior officials from Moscow and Washington “need to sit down together soon” to advance the peace effort in that region.

But on the issue of an agreement to reduce the superpowers’ arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by 50%, he said, too many detailed issues reflecting the two sides’ differences stand in the way, although the political will for an agreement exists.

Virtually all of the senior officials involved in the talks have indicated that such a pact is unlikely before Reagan’s term ends. One commented: “We’ve chiseled away, and the rock gets harder and harder as you get closer to the form you’re trying to carve.”

Still, White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. said on board Air Force One that the two countries made as much progress on arms control “as we thought it would be possible to make” and that it would help advance the treaty negotiations in Geneva. After a period of intense bargaining leading up to the summit, the negotiators are not scheduled to resume their talks until mid-July.

On Thursday evening, after Reagan and Thatcher met for 40 minutes before dinner, White House and British officials said the President told the prime minister that the United States will take its time to achieve only what it considers a good arms control agreement.

They said Thatcher had accepted an invitation to visit Reagan after the November election. This would presumably allow her to meet the President’s successor.

A senior Thatcher aide said the prime minister has judged the summit “very successful” and congratulated Reagan “not only on the success but on the way he had handled it.”

In their 45-minute talk, in the Cabinet Room of the prime minister’s offices at 10 Downing St., she backed his strong stand on human rights and his refusal to be rushed by Gorbachev into a quick agreement on strategic arms reduction.

“We don’t have any reservations about the U.S. positions or where any of the negotiations stand at present,” the aide said.

Thatcher was also reported to be pleased that Reagan had been able to get out and meet members of the Soviet public. “Her point was, it’s harder for the Soviets to see him as a threatening, evil man if they see him in person,” the aide said.

Lauds Public Relations Effort

Although Thatcher praised Reagan’s performance in Moscow, she has often made it clear that she does not share the President’s dream of a world without nuclear weapons, a goal he spoke of in Moscow. She has consistently defended the presence of nuclear arms as a key factor in keeping Europe free of war for one of the longest periods in its history.

She views Britain’s modest nuclear force as an essential part of her country’s defense that should not be a part of current strategic arms negotiations.

As Reagan heads home, details of his four meetings with Gorbachev are emerging, as officials present accounts of the sessions. Baker, presenting a portrait of a President adamantly making a point with Gorbachev, said that at their final session Wednesday, “they were face to face and going at it pretty heavy until the end.”

He declined to disclose the topic of their disagreement, but White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said later that it involved a dispute over language in the summit-ending joint statement and ended with Reagan telling the Soviet leader: “I’m sorry. We cannot accept the language (the Soviets had proposed).”

Times staff writer Tyler Marshall contributed to this article.