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SIDELINES : Summit Talks Unlikely at Games

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From Times Wire Services

President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev might visit the Goodwill Games, but a summit meeting is unlikely because of hotel shortages and security concerns, organizers said.

The idea of summit talks during the Olympics-style competition, which runs three weeks this summer, was mostly media hype, said Bob Walsh, president of the Goodwill Games Organizing Committee. The idea was raised by Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) in a letter to Secretary of State James A. Baker III. A Baker assistant later said the suggestion was under consideration.

But Walsh said: “It’s never been possible. It’s just something that somehow got stretched out of proportion. We don’t have the hotels.”

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Walsh and Rep. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.) said Bush and Gorbachev might meet informally during the games or might hold a summit meeting elsewhere and fly to the games together for a brief visit.

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