Lithuania to Compromise : Prime Minister Seeks to Head Off Gorbachev Embargo : Leader Hints Giving In on Key Issues

Lithuania is ready to compromise on key issues cited by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in his threat to cut off strategic goods, the Baltic republic’s prime minister said today.

Kazamiera Prunskiene, in a telephone interview from her office in Vilnius, said the republic’s leaders had been “very careful” in drafting a response to Gorbachev at a special session held today, a public holiday in Lithuania.

She noted that Gorbachev’s threat, issued Friday, differed from previous Kremlin statements because it did not specifically demand the rescinding of Lithuania’s March 11 declaration of independence.

The Kremlin warning, also signed by Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, gave the republic two days to abandon legislation backing up its independence declaration or face a cutoff of all supplies normally sold abroad for hard currency.

There were no specific signs today of any attempt to halt supplies of such goods, which would include oil, gasoline and other raw materials scarce in the republic.

“This last telegram represents a softening because there was no mention of presidential power and no necessity of rescinding the decisions of March 11,” Prunskiene said.

“There were claims in connection with concrete issues--the spring military call-up, the rights of Soviet citizens in Lithuania and property of the Soviet Communist Party. On all these questions we are prepared not only to hold talks but also to move toward compromises.”

She repeated Lithuania’s willingness to allow men to serve in the Soviet army if they wish and said it had agreed to let resident Soviet citizens retain their citizenship.

The authorities were also prepared to examine urgently disputes over Soviet property which Lithuania claimed as its own following its independence proclamation. They included buildings belonging to the national Communist Party.

In a telegram to Gorbachev, Prunskeine asked the Soviet president to meet with the republic’s president to provide details of Moscow’s threatened economic sanctions so that Lithuanians can be prepared.

It would be Gorbachev’s first meeting with Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis, who was elected after the republic declared itself independent on March 11.

In her telegram, Prunskiene said Lithuania wants to explain to its people just what difficulties they might face if they ignore Gorbachev’s ultimatum.

“We are entitled to know what the Soviet Union means when it talks about halting supplies--what goods are we talking about, are we to be made to pay in hard currency or what?” Prunskeine said.

The Lithuanian premier said today she saw no evidence of any supplies being withheld “outside of the normal shortages within the Soviet system.”

She also said the joint meeting of the Lithuanian government and parliamentary leadership issued instructions to Lithuanian enterprises not to withhold goods from Soviet customers pending clarification of Moscow’s measures.