Hungary May Break Out of Warsaw Pact : Military: Lawmakers applaud an opposition proposal. Defense minister confirms the sale of MIGs to the United States.

In a sign of Hungary’s drift from the Kremlin’s orbit, the newly elected Parliament on Wednesday applauded an opposition proposal that Hungary withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and suspend all military exercises with the alliance until the break can be formally negotiated.

In another development, Defense Minister Gyorgy Karpathy confirmed reports that Hungary has sold Soviet-built MIG jets to the United States but denied that the sales disclosed any Soviet military secrets.

The proposal that a 1956 effort to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact be revived came from the opposition Alliance of Free Democrats. It was made by 72-year-old Miklos Vasarhelyi, who was spokesman for the government of reformist Prime Minister Imre Nagy during the anti-Communist uprising 34 years ago. Nagy’s effort to steer Hungary from the Kremlin-led alliance prompted the Soviet Union to send Warsaw Pact troops to crush the revolt.

Vasarhelyi also called for immediate suspension of Hungary’s military relationship with the Soviet Bloc.

“Hungary should not take part in military maneuvers, nor should the troops of other countries hold military maneuvers on the territory of Hungary,” he said.

The proposal, which prompted a broad outbreak of applause from the deputies, divided among six political parties, is to be debated when Parliament resumes its work next Tuesday.

If approved, it would make Hungary the first of the emerging democracies in Eastern Europe to suspend its Warsaw Pact activity.

Under an agreement reached with Moscow in March, all Soviet troops are to be out of Hungary by the end of next year.

Prime Minister-designate Joszef Antall of the Hungarian Democratic Forum has said that he too would like to end Hungary’s relationship with the troubled alliance. But he has assured both Moscow and Washington that his nation will abide by its international agreements until new accords can be negotiated.

On the issue of the MIG sales, the Washington Post reported Sunday that U.S. officials had paid $40 million to Warsaw Pact countries over the past decade for classified Soviet military equipment and that the information gained in this way was useful in the development of the American B-2 bomber, known as the Stealth because of its radar-evading qualities.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gyorgy Keleti initially denied the report that Hungary was among the Warsaw Pact nations involved. But then a former defense newspaper journalist, Istvan Toth Kozma, told Budapest Radio on Tuesday that he knew that six MIGs had been sold to the United States earlier this year.

Defense Minister Karpathy was asked during a parliamentary debate whether Hungary was in any way involved in such transactions. He replied that four MIG-21s had been sold to an American firm for use in museum displays.