Bush Authorizes Polish Consulate for Los Angeles : Diplomacy: He also lifts travel curbs for Warsaw diplomats. But U.S. security officials worry that the moves may increase chances for espionage.

Despite the concerns of U.S. intelligence experts, President Bush on Wednesday approved a longstanding Polish request to open a consulate in Los Angeles and lifted travel restrictions on Polish diplomats.

The FBI and other U.S. counterintelligence officials have strongly resisted efforts by a number of countries to open missions in Southern California, fearing increased opportunities for espionage in the region’s sensitive defense and aerospace facilities.

And, despite the downfall of Communist governments in the former Soviet Bloc, intelligence officials say they remain concerned that East European intelligence agencies, which once operated under effective Soviet control, may continue to evade the control of new democratic governments.

East European leaders admit that their national intelligence services may not yet be totally under the control of new, non-Communist governments. The issue may be particularly relevant in Poland, where the Defense and Interior ministries remain under Communist control.

But the Administration has been eager to demonstrate support for the new governments and provide concrete signs that, as Bush put it, relations between the United States and Eastern Europe are now once again normal.

Within the Bush Administration, officials remain divided. Not surprisingly, counterintelligence officials have taken the most pessimistic view.

“It’s their job to be concerned,” a State Department official said.

According to counterintelligence sources, the relaxation of travel rules and the increasing exchanges between the United States, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have greatly increased the number of immigrants, visitors, business people and officials from potentially hostile nations entering the country. Each of these groups at times have included intelligence officers assigned to collect information in the United States.

In 1981, a Polish national, Marian Zacharski, was the center of one of Southern California’s largest espionage cases. Zacharski was sentenced to life in prison in the case, which involved the theft of U.S. radar technology from Hughes Aircraft and its sale to the Soviets. He was later returned to Poland in a prisoner exchange.

Neither the Soviets nor any of their former East European allies are currently among the 46 nations allowed consulates in Los Angeles. China is the only Communist country that has such an office, a privilege won in the mid-1980s over strenuous FBI objections. Hungary has requested permission to open a West Coast consulate, but no decision has been made on that question, the State Department official said.

The announcement of the change in U.S. policy toward Poland came at the conclusion of an hourlong meeting between Bush and Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, in Washington for a three-day state visit.

Bush also sought to reassure Mazowiecki that Poland will not be left out in negotiations over the future of Germany.

“In any decision affecting the fate of Poland, Poland must have a voice,” Bush said in a ceremony welcoming Mazowiecki to the White House.

The two countries also signed a trade agreement that is expected to set a pattern for commercial treaties between the United States and other East European countries.

Poland and the United States continue to have differences over Poland’s role in talks about Germany, but “we’re not that far apart,” Bush told reporters after meeting with Mazowiecki. The two met privately for about 30 minutes to discuss Germany and the Polish border--a discussion they will continue today. They then joined aides for a discussion of economic issues.

Many Poles fear that a reunited Germany might try to regain territory it lost to Poland after World War II. Warsaw has been pushing for a greater role in the “two-plus-four” talks over Germany’s future. Last week, the participants in those talks--the two Germanys and the four major victorious World War II powers--the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union--agreed that Poland would be included in any discussion involving Poland’s border with Germany. The Poles have asked to be included in any talks that might involve their security, a broader category.

The Administration has been seeking to sidestep the controversy by emphasizing that the two-plus-four talks will address only a narrow range of issues. Broader European concerns about security will be handled in other negotiations that already include the Poles, including arms control negotiations in Vienna, Assistant Secretary of State Raymond Seitz told reporters after the Bush-Mazowiecki meeting.

The trade treaty signed Wednesday provides a series of protections for U.S. businessmen who might invest in Poland, including broad protections for patents and copyrights and guarantees against having their property expropriated by the state.

Despite wide-ranging economic reforms in Poland, American business people so far have been slow to invest in the country.

“Our telephones do not work as they should, and we have many other problems,” Mazowiecki said during a White House ceremony at which the treaty was signed. “But I would like to tell you that I think people should not be discouraged by the problems which are typical of this first phase” of economic reform.

Mazowiecki also met with Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, largely to discuss Poland’s $39-billion foreign debt.