World : Soviets May Miss Afghan Deadline

The Soviet Union today warned that it might keep its troops in Afghanistan beyond the Feb. 15 deadline set in Geneva peace accords after failure to agree on a broad-based government in Kabul. The White House said it will hold the Soviets to that date.

“It is too early to talk about a (withdrawal) schedule,” Yuli Vorontsov, the Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan, told a news conference in Moscow. “We have to see how things shape up.” In Washington, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that the same kind of statement has been made over the last months and that “we still expect them to meet the deadline.”