Gorbachev Proposes Talks With Lithuania : Secession: He warns of ‘grave consequences’ of move for independence. But Landsbergis rejects the Soviet leader’s terms as ‘harsh.’

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, warning Lithuania that its three-week-old unilateral declaration of independence from the Soviet Union could lead to “grave consequences,” urged the Baltic republic Saturday to back down and resolve its grievances with the Kremlin through negotiations.

In messages to the Lithuanian people and the republic’s Parliament that were tough yet conciliatory, Gorbachev made clear Moscow’s determination to prevent Lithuania’s secession, saying that the Soviet leadership is now under intense pressure from the rest of the country to take decisive political and economic actions to defend its integrity.

“The situation in the republic and around it has become dramatic,” Gorbachev said, referring to the acute tensions that have arisen over Lithuania’s actions and Moscow’s efforts to counter them. “If the voice of reason is not heeded now, developments can have grave consequences for all of us. We must be united in striving to prevent this.”

Lithuania, he said, chose a “ruinous” course in its unilateral decision to secede, and this “will only lead to a dead end.”

“I urge the deputies of the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet to understand this truth and their historical responsibility for the interests of the people of Lithuania--Lithuanians and non-Lithuanians--for their security and well-being, for the destiny of democracy in the whole of our country and for stability in the world,” the Soviet president told members of the Lithuanian Parliament, according to the text of his statement provided by the official news agency Tass.

Gorbachev called upon them to “immediately annul the illegal acts it has adopted” in declaring the republic’s independence. “Such a step,” he said, “will open the possibility for discussing the entire range of problems on the only acceptable basis--within the framework of the Soviet constitution.”

These terms were rejected immediately by Vytautas Landsbergis, the Lithuanian president, who denounced Gorbachev’s statements as “extremely harsh and vindictive.”

Lithuania has repeatedly offered to negotiate, Landsbergis said in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, but Moscow has “rejected our extended hand.” Gorbachev is now “demanding impossible things,” the Lithuanian leader added.

Landsbergis said that Lithuania would pursue its independence despite the increased Soviet pressure. “We have no ways of stopping this,” he said. “We can work, live normally and wait. We must be tough and have tenacity. We have this in our character.”

But others within Sajudis, the Lithuanian nationalist movement that won more than two-thirds of the seats in the republic’s Parliament last month on a platform of independence, saw some prospect for talks with Moscow on the basis of the two Gorbachev appeals, which they said would be discussed by Parliament on Monday.

“The proclamation of sovereignty cannot be rescinded,” one Sajudis activist said after studying the Gorbachev statements, “but it might be amplified . . . so that a longer timetable is provided, so that negotiations were clearly incorporated, so that even there could be eventual ratification by the Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies.

“Except for our independence and sovereignty, everything is negotiable, and we have said so from the beginning.”

The Lithuanian leadership last week had taken a more conciliatory approach, urging its citizens to obey a Kremlin order to surrender their firearms and abandoning as too confrontational its plans to set up border posts separating itself from the rest of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev, who has taken the Lithuanian secession as an expression of no confidence in his reform program, known as perestroika, and a rejection of his leadership, spoke of his hope of remaking the Soviet Union into a truly federal system through round-table talks and new legislation.

“The actions being taken in Lithuania have no logical foundation,” he said in his appeal to the Lithuanian people. “They are being taken at a time when we have begun to resolve vital issues of the Soviet federation on a really democratic basis.

“What is our position? It is the sincere adherence to the ideas of the free and original development of all nations of our country and respect for their legitimate rights to self-determination and sovereignty. This fully refers to the Lithuanian people, too.”

Gorbachev was acting in accordance with a decision of the country’s new Federal Council, which directed him at its first meeting on Friday to tell Lithuania that it must rescind unconstitutional laws before any talks on secession could begin.

The council, established last month by a constitutional amendment, is empowered to oversee relations between the central government and the republics and to give the republics a greater voice in the capital.

“Irresponsible and illegal actions” by Lithuanian leaders would certainly affect the republic’s economic, scientific, technical and other links with Soviet republics, Gorbachev said, quietly reminding Lithuanians that it imports virtually all of its oil, gas and raw materials from other regions of the Soviet Union.

“All these ties can develop normally and yield fruits only in a favorable atmosphere of confidence and mutual assistance, and not in the situation of confrontation, ultimatums, disrespect for one another and ethnic strife,” Gorbachev said.

“The pointed disrespect for the Soviet constitution, the challenge to Soviet laws and the non-implementation of federal obligations give rise to just indignation all over the country.”

Lithuania’s present leadership has said that, while it is willing to negotiate, it is not willing to commit itself to follow procedures for secession that the Soviet legislature is still debating.

Moreover, Lithuanians insist that the talks can really only be about the terms for its secession and its future relations with the Soviet Union, since under the present Soviet constitution it and the other 14 republics all have to right to secede.

But Gorbachev apparently hopes that the pressure that Moscow has already applied to Lithuania and the threat of further moves will persuade the republic’s 3.7 million people to pursue negotiations, whether for resolution of their grievances or secession from the Soviet Union.

The Kremlin has been exerting increasing pressure on the republic, rounding up army deserters and sending troops to occupy public buildings despite appeals by President Bush and other Western leaders not to use force.

In Vilnius, police and internal security troops, apparently airlifted into Lithuania from other regions of the country, are now patrolling the printing plant for the republic’s main newspapers, the chief prosecutor’s office and several buildings owned by the Communist Party, including its headquarters.

The newspaper plant and the chief prosecutor’s office were seized overnight as part of Moscow’s efforts to assert its authority. Lithuanian journalists said the troops had not tried to interfere with printing of weekend papers, but they fear censorship might be imposed on Monday. The prosecutor’s office was occupied after staff members refused Friday to work with a Moscow loyalist appointed by the central authorities.

Moscow contends that the troop actions are legitimate attempts to enforce law and order, which it says broke down with Lithuania’s unilateral and “unconstitutional” declaration of independence.

The central authorities had initially used paratroopers, armed with automatic rifles and dressed in camouflage uniforms, to seize most of the buildings, but they were withdrawn during the night and replaced with police and internal security forces, presumably so that Lithuanians would not have the feeling that their capital was being taken over by an occupation army.

Lithuanian deserters from the Soviet army, meanwhile, began to trickle back to their units, frightened by the possibility of arrest but somewhat encouraged by promises of an amnesty.

The Defense Ministry had said it would not punish Lithuanian deserters if they voluntarily returned. But the chief military prosecutor, Alexander Katusev, said later in a television interview that criminal proceedings had been started against all deserters and added that people encouraging desertions would also be prosecuted.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday in the Ukrainian capital Kiev in defiance of an official ban to show their support of the Lithuanian declaration and to encourage Ukrainians in Lithuania to back Sajudis in its quest for independence. The Ukrainian Movement for Perestroika, the principal sponsor, put attendance at upwards of 20,000, but there was no confirmation of this figure.

In Moscow, several hundred people rallied in Gorky Park in support of Lithuania, carrying placards reading, “Hands Off Lithuania,” and “Down With Red Fascism.”

Free-lance journalist Esther Schrader, in Vilnius, contributed to this story.