THE WASHINGTON SUMMIT: Dealing with the New Reality : Pact Is More Politics Than Economics : Diplomacy: Bush and Gorbachev save face by forgoing a formal accord in favor of an informal deal on policy.

President Bush gave Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev a valuable political gift Friday by signing a U.S.-Soviet trade agreement, something the Kremlin leader desperately wanted to take home to Moscow from this week’s summit meeting.

In return, U.S. and Soviet officials indicated, the Soviet leader told Bush that he is confident he can get peaceful negotiations started with the rebellious Baltic republic of Lithuania within the next few weeks--meeting a major U.S. concern that had stood in the way of the trade pact.

Gorbachev did not offer a formal commitment, and Bush did not insist on one, officials said.

But the informal deal provided both sides with a face-saving way to conclude a trade agreement that both wanted, while giving U.S. officials a private assurance that Gorbachev is serious about seeking a peaceful solution to his Lithuanian problem.

According to one source close to the Soviet delegation, Gorbachev told Bush in one of their meetings this week that he expects talks with the Lithuanian government to begin “within a few weeks.”

Bush asked whether the negotiations would start before the Soviet Communist Party Congress, scheduled to begin July 2--and Gorbachev answered, “Yes,” the source said.

U.S. officials refused to confirm the details of the exchange, but they indicated that the substance was correct.

“Gorbachev raised it privately,” one Administration official said. “There was some kind of chemistry or understanding between the two presidents.”

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, asked whether Gorbachev provided any assurances on Lithuania’s future, said: “Those were diplomatic exchanges that I just don’t feel comfortable . . . quoting the president of the Soviet Union on.”

But he added: “We are very hopeful. We’ve been hopeful, and we remain hopeful.”

Baker attempted to retreat slightly from earlier statements by Bush and other officials that it will be difficult to normalize trade relations with the Soviet Union unless the Kremlin lifts its economic blockade of Lithuania and begins negotiations over the republic’s independence.

On May 24, the President told a White House news conference that it would be “extraordinarily difficult” to grant most-favored-nation trade status to the Soviet Union without progress on the Baltic issue.

“Let’s hope there’s some progress on the Lithuanian question, because I think many feel there’s a direct linkage there,” Bush said. “And I must say, it concerns me.”

But on Friday, Baker said: “There has been no formal linkage by anybody in this Administration.”

“(The President) said it would be extraordinarily difficult in the absence of a dialogue. I don’t think he ever said it was a condition,” Baker said.

Still, State Department officials said they expect to face a hail of conservative criticism for the decision to go ahead with the trade agreement.

“I can see the headline now,” joked one: “Sellout!”

Even before the trade agreement was announced, Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas said a bipartisan majority in Congress believes that the Soviet Union should provide more solid assurances about independence for Lithuania and the two other Baltic republics before additional trade concessions are approved.

“Congress is not going to move on a trade agreement or most-favored-nation status without something more” than Gorbachev has offered so far, Dole told reporters.

Baker and other U.S. officials noted that the Administration still has a fallback position in case progress on the Lithuanian issue does not occur. The main benefits of the trade agreement will not be felt until Congress agrees to grant most-favored-nation status to the Soviet Union--and Bush has not yet asked for such a move.

Soviet officials have made it clear in recent weeks, with increasing insistence, that they wanted to see the trade agreement signed.

Even Gorbachev, in a meeting Friday morning with congressional leaders, made an open plea for the pact and most-favored-nation status. “It is very important that you make this gesture, mostly from a political standpoint,” he said.

“This is something that the Soviets can take home,” said Michael Mandelbaum, a Soviet expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “It will be valuable, mostly symbolically. . . . Gorbachev will be able to say, ‘We’ve got a trade agreement, now we’re on an equal footing with the rest of the world. And if we go through the horror, the shock therapy of economic reform, there is something waiting for us on the other side.’

“Gorbachev can legitimately claim that he got something,” he said. “And Bush can legitimately claim that he stepped up to the issue.”

An Administration official said Gorbachev raised the trade issue with Bush during their one-on-one meetings both Thursday and Friday and during the state dinner Thursday night, but never during the larger sessions that included aides. U.S. officials speculated that Gorbachev acted in that manner to avoid a public appearance of asking for favors from the Americans.

“He didn’t want to put a high public profile on it,” the official said.

In response to Gorbachev’s requests on trade, the official said, Bush repeated the Administration’s position on both emigration and Lithuania, an implicit way of linking the trade issue with the fate of the Baltic independence movements.

The official would neither confirm nor deny reports that Gorbachev had given Bush specific assurances about the timing of negotiations with the Lithuanians. “We’ve urged a process, and while the process, itself, has not emerged, the process may be emerging,” he said.

In an apparent last-ditch pressure tactic, the Soviet delegation warned Thursday that it might not sign a grain agreement, which the United States had sought. The Soviet objections to the grain agreement disappeared after Bush agreed to sign the trade treaty, the official said.

The final details of the deal, however, were not ironed out until Friday afternoon, in a meeting between Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze that ran past the time the two presidents were scheduled to sign their agreements, another official said.

It was not clear whether Gorbachev provided Bush any details of how he hopes to get talks with Lithuania off the ground.

Times staff writer David Lauter contributed to this story.