The World - News from Nov. 23, 1988

The process of setting up conventional arms reductions talks in Europe has been badly disrupted by France. U.S., British and West German officials are said to be furious at the French for suddenly reneging on a previous compromise involving new arms talks in Europe. Western officials had hoped that after 2 1/2 years of meetings, the long-running, follow-up conference to the 1975 Helsinki accords on East-West security could wind up by the end of the year. With an agreement at the Vienna conference on human rights issues, new conventional arms control talks--which have been urged by the United States and Soviet Union--would begin early next year. The conventional arms stability talks were to have taken place under the aegis of the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation as soon as the Soviet Union approved a related accord on observing human rights and releasing political prisoners.