U.S. Mutes Its Warnings to Moscow : Lithuania: The Soviets make an appeal for American ‘understanding.’ Strains appear to ease.

Less than a day after Soviet troops pulled bloodied army deserters from a Lithuanian hospital where they had taken refuge, the Bush Administration muted its strong warnings to the Kremlim to avoid violence in stemming the Lithuanian independence movement.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union made an unusual public appeal for American “understanding” of its predicament in Lithuania.

The sudden shift in the tenor of White House and State Department remarks, coupled with the appeal by a senior Soviet official in Washington, appeared to reduce the strain between the two superpowers even as the tension in the Lithuanian capital appeared to increase.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater refused several opportunities to say whether the move by Soviet army paratroopers against Lithuanian deserters amounted to a use of force or intimidation.

“This is a very complex and delicate diplomatic situation,” he said, refusing to offer any comment on how the White House views the deserter situation.

Explaining his reluctance to use the same sort of toughened language he has employed for several days leading up to the clash in the capital, Vilnius, he told reporters:

“I choose not to use it today. We simply don’t feel inflammatory language is helpful. We do not want to inflame the situation.”

Similarly, in a reflection of the Administration’s decision to avoid making any specific comments that might make the dilemma more difficult to resolve, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said: “What I’m not going to do today, which we didn’t yesterday, is I’m not going to define ‘force,’ ‘coercion,’ or ‘intimidation.’ ”

“If we put too much pressure on them, and make it look like we’re painting them into a corner, they might lash out and do precisely what we don’t want them to do,” an Administration official said.

But even as he said the Administration is trying to give the Soviets “some breathing room” by toning down its public comments, he added:

“I wouldn’t want to let it sound like we’re letting whatever happens in Lithuania happen because the overall relationship is so important to us. We recognize that if Lithuania goes down the tube, the overall relationship will suffer.”

The Administration’s decision to tone down its approach was made in response to some news accounts that portrayed it Monday as stepping up the pressure on Moscow, an interpretation that officials said was mistaken.

However, the official conceded Tuesday, the decision “was made more difficult by events overnight”--the seizing of the deserters--”which appeared to ratchet up the pressure to say something and do something.”

Meanwhile, Soviet diplomats in Washington and elsewhere held press conferences in an appeal for “understanding” of Moscow’s actions in the Baltic republic.

“Most Americans are very sympathetic to (Soviet) policies of perestroika , glasnost and democratization, which profoundly affect U.S.-Soviet relations,” said Sergei Chetverikov, the Soviet Embassy counselor, or third-ranking official.

“We hope we can count on the understanding of others who also stress the importance of law and order,” Chetverikov said.

While he spoke, demonstrators across the street, carrying placards and waving the red, yellow and green Lithuanian flag, could be heard chanting rhythmically “Nyet, nyet, Soviet,” and “Soviet butchers, go home.”

Times staff writer Norman Kempster also contributed to this report.