Bush to Offer to Reduce U.S. Forces in Europe : Plan for 30,000-Troop Cut Is Intended to Ease Allied Concern Over His Stance on Arms Talks

President Bush, in a show of flexibility aimed at European allies unhappy with his uncompromising stance on nuclear arms, will present them with a new plan for eventually withdrawing more than 30,000 U.S. troops from Western Europe.

A reduction in American forces of that magnitude, to be part of a broader agreement with Moscow on cutting back conventional arms, would be fully three times as large as anything Washington has been prepared to discuss up to now.

As such, it would represent a relatively dramatic gesture for an administration that so far has insisted on a low-key, go-slow approach to arms control.

However, the President, who arrived Friday in Rome on a four-nation European tour leading up to next week’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels, is faced with increasingly outspoken resistance--both in Europe and among Democrats at home--over his unyielding approach to arms control and the dramatic initiatives of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Could Shift Summit Focus

A show of flexibility on conventional force reductions--now the subject of U.S.-Soviet negotiations in Vienna--could shift the focus of the NATO summit onto conventional forces and away from the divisive issue of short-range nuclear weapons.

Floating a proposal for pulling back American troops could also generate pressure on West Germany to fall in line with the Administration on the controversial issue of short-range nuclear weapons.

If Bush can win the backing of the NATO allies for the troop cut proposal--including possible hold-outs France and Britain--it could become the centerpiece of the NATO summit marking the alliance’s 40th year. Officials stressed, however, that the plan must win the broad backing of Washington’s allies before Bush unveils it publicly.

White House officials declined repeatedly to confirm the existence of the troop cut proposal, but Pentagon sources said that after considerable internal debate, Bush had decided to present the plan to the allies as a response to Gorbachev’s recent flurry of arms control offers.

“I’m not admitting or denying anything,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said when asked about reports of a troop cut, which were first published Friday in the Washington Times. “Any ideas in this area would be ones the President would want to discuss with the allies . . . before he discusses anything publicly,” Fitzwater said. A troop cut, he added, is not something “we would take unilaterally.”

U.S. officials have been engaged in a difficult series of negotiations with West Germany over the future of NATO’s short-range nuclear missiles in Europe. Bonn, responding to domestic political pressure, has been pressing Washington to respond to Gorbachev’s offers of weapons cutbacks by entering into prompt talks with Moscow on short-range missiles--those that can only reach targets within 300 miles.

Bush so far has refused to begin such talks unless agreement is first reached on curbing conventional forces. Administration strategists fear that negotiations on short-range nuclear forces inevitably would lead to pressure for total elimination of such weapons--potentially leaving NATO at the mercy of the East Bloc’s vastly greater conventional forces.

With attempts to close the rift bogged down, the Administration has been hoping that pressure from conservatives in West Germany will move Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher closer to the U.S. position.

A suggestion that the United States might be considering a troop cut would be likely to increase that pressure.

The United States has roughly 340,000 troops in Western and Southern Europe, including 247,000 in West Germany. Bush’s proposal would call for 10% of that total to return to the United States. Officials said the returning units would be disbanded in an effort to reap some budget savings from the deal.

The diplomatic thrusts and parries will reach their climax Monday, when Bush and the 15 other NATO leaders begin the annual alliance summit meeting.

In confirming the existence of the troop cut plan, Administration officials in Washington said it was designed both to counter the perception that the Soviet Union has seized the initiative in superpower relations and to blunt congressional calls for deeper reductions in the defense budget and U.S. troop commitments to NATO.

But the plan also likely would carry conditions designed to coax further concessions from the Soviet Union, a Pentagon official said, including willingness to accept parity with NATO in the area of troop strength.

Bush hopes that the allies would agree to make the U.S. cutback conditional on the Soviets’ willingness to reduce their own troops stationed in Eastern Europe to a level equal to NATO’s.

The Warsaw Pact’s current Vienna proposal would allow the Soviet Union to station 350,000 troops in Eastern Europe. The 10% reduction in U.S. troops would bring American troop strength in Europe to just over 300,000.

The troop reductions would likely come from a number of different units that the United States maintains in Western Europe, rather than from a single division, said a Defense Department official.

Overall, the initiative would reduce U.S. combat strength along the East German-West German border from 4 2/3 divisions to four divisions, one military officer said. Administration officials also hope that the U.S. initiative will bring additional Soviet concessions in the Vienna talks on conventional arms. The two sides have been slowed by differences over definitions of which systems should be included and the demarcation of zones within which reductions must be taken.

In the meantime, Bush will meet in Rome today with Italian government leaders and Pope John Paul II, then travel Sunday to an American military cemetery south of Rome for a Memorial Day ceremony.

Bush hopes to discuss with the Italians plans to transfer a squadron of F-16 fighters to Italy from Spain. The United States is withdrawing the fighters from Spain because of public opposition there.

Greeted at Rome’s Ciampino airport by Italian Prime Minister Ciriaco De Mita, Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti, Vatican officials and a full honor guard, Bush emphasized the themes that he hopes will dominate the summit.

The Western alliance, he said, must work to “bring the Soviet Union into the community of nations” and promote “measures to encourage political and economic liberalization” in Eastern Europe.

Critics have attacked that message as too timid in the face of the dramatic changes taking place in the Communist world. But Administration officials defend their course, saying it is the only prudent path.

Policy-makers have to consider “what is the evolution of Eastern Europe and how do you take advantage of the evolution” while “not irresponsibly contributing to an explosion there which could reverse” progress, a senior Administration official said in a recent interview.

Administration officials worry about the possibility that Eastern European reform efforts could move so fast that the Soviets may feel compelled to crack down.

They also are concerned that Gorbachev’s growing image as a peacemaker will encourage the public in the West to believe that the Soviet threat has disappeared. The current dispute with the Germans over short-range nuclear forces is an example of that “complacency” in the West, Administration officials argue.

Nelson reported from Rome and Healy from Washington.

BUSH’S EUROPEAN ITINERARY

1--Rome. Meets today (Sat.) with Italian officials and Pope John Paul II.

2--Nettuno, Italy. Visits Sicily-Rome American cemetery Sunday for a Memorial Day ceremony. Departs Rome for Brussels.

3--Brussels. Attends North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit Monday and Tuesday. Departs for Bonn.

4--Bonn. Meets with West German officials Tuesday and Wednesday. Departs for Mainz after meeting with U.S. Embassy community.

5--Mainz, West Germany. Rhine River excursion Wednesday. Departs Frankfurt for London.

6--London. Meets with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and lunches with Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. Departs Friday, June 2, for Kennebunkport, Me.