Superpowers Portraying Summit in Grander Terms : Helsinki: The U.S. becomes more upbeat, calls talks ‘a new foundation for world order.’ Moscow predicts a ‘major milestone’ toward a settlement.

Following the lead of the Soviet Union, the White House on Tuesday portrayed the upcoming summit conference in considerably grander terms than it had over the weekend, calling it the start of “a new foundation for world order.”

The Administration’s more upbeat description came after a top Soviet official described the Finland summit as “a major milestone.”

“A new foundation for world order is being built, and the spade work begins in Helsinki,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Tuesday. “This summit should provide an even stronger bond of unified opposition” to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“It’s somewhat ironic that the prospect of war is forging a new blueprint for world peace,” Fitzwater added. “Both leaders will want to apply some new brush strokes to this emerging picture.”

With President Bush back at the White House after his much-interrupted vacation in Maine, the foreign policy operation turned immediately toward the task of preparing for his meeting Sunday with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Helsinki.

Members of the White House advance team began working in Finland on Tuesday with their Soviet counterparts, laying the groundwork for the second meeting between Bush and Gorbachev in three months.

The meeting, which the White House said was proposed by Bush, is being touted both as a reflection of new East-West relations and a demonstration of Bush’s own preference for frequent, personal contact with other world leaders, particularly in times of crisis.

Initially, the Administration took pains to play down expectations for the summit, with Bush simply expressing the hope that it would demonstrate unity of the two superpowers.

But on Tuesday, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said in a speech that the summit will become a “major milestone on the road toward resolving the crisis in the Persian Gulf.”

The Soviet official said the world faces a “highly critical, emergency situation that has made necessary extraordinary action in the form of a special meeting between the Soviet and U.S. presidents.”

Fitzwater expressed no concern regarding the presence of approximately 193 Soviet military advisers in Iraq, although U.S. officials had indicated that at the summit Bush would urge Gorbachev to pull them out.

The Soviets, he said, “have explained that they have some large contracts there that require some people to be there, but by a large measure their people are leaving.”

“That’s an understandable situation. You have to understand that the Soviet Union has been associated with Iraq for a number of years. They have changed policy in a most dramatic fashion, and we do not have any qualms or problems about their overall support. We have asked them to please withdraw these people, and we believe they are doing so as soon as they can,” he said.

The remarks by Fitzwater and others demonstrated the Administration’s efforts to make it clear that very little space separates the United States and the Soviet Union on the Persian Gulf issue.

In testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said, “I don’t know where we would be with this effort if it hadn’t been for the enlightened new thinking of the Soviet Union.

“The Soviet Union has proved a responsible partner, suggesting new possibilities for active superpower cooperation in resolving regional conflicts,” he said.

In a mirror image of Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov’s chiding of Soviet military leaders concerned about U.S. action in the gulf, Baker said, “There is some old thinking in this country” about keeping the Soviets as far away as possible from the Middle East.

He said that if Moscow wants to send military forces to join the international deployment in the gulf, they would be welcomed by the Administration.

He said it is unlikely that the Soviets would participate, however, unless “there was a blue (U.N.) flag over the force.”

Although the gulf crisis provided the impetus for the meeting, the two leaders will also review the status of negotiations to reduce conventional, or non-nuclear, weapons in Europe, Fitzwater said.

“The two presidents will not be negotiating details of this agreement, but they will be attempting to add the impetus that would ensure that that agreement is ready to sign” in time for a 35-nation East-West summit planned in Paris in November or December.

Other topics will include such regional issues as the future of Cambodia and the efforts to end the civil war in Afghanistan.

Fitzwater said Bush liked the “unstructured” format of the meetings he held with Gorbachev in Malta last December and would try to duplicate that format.

The exact schedule is still being planned, but the White House spokesman said there would be morning, afternoon and luncheon sessions. Bush plans to leave Washington Friday evening and fly overnight to Helsinki, meeting with Finnish leaders on Saturday.

In addition, the spokesman held out the possibility that Bush would continue on the road from Helsinki, perhaps meeting with other leaders elsewhere in Europe, before returning to Washington. He said there are no plans for the President to go to the Persian Gulf region.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster contributed to this report.