Cheney, in Warsaw, Talks of U.S. Arms Sales to Poles : Europe: His visit--first ever by a U.S. defense secretary to the former Cold War rival--points to marked changes in the crumbling Soviet Bloc.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney marked a new era in relations between the United States and a former Cold War rival here Wednesday, completing talks with Polish military, political and economic leaders and raising prospects for future U.S. arms sales to the new Polish government.

Cheney concluded two days of meetings here, huddling with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, the man who is expected to become Poland’s first president after elections Sunday. It was the first time a U.S. defense secretary has visited Poland, which until only recently was a key force in the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet military bloc.

Sounding a theme that several officials have emphasized during meetings with Cheney, Walesa warned him that Poland is teetering on the verge of economic collapse.

“We have economic problems, and the world has sort of left us on our own,” Walesa said. “Our revolution is a little bit threatened.”

In earlier meetings, however, Polish military officials stressed the less-distinct military threat that Poland feels on several of its borders, including that of a newly reunified Germany and a Soviet Union fast succumbing to ethnic and national centrifugal forces.

As those new threats emerge and the Warsaw Pact dissolves as a military alliance, the Polish military is restructuring itself to take up a guard along all of its troubled borders--a marked departure from days when the threat from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the West dominated Polish military planning.

Now, Poland is shopping in the West for new arms and new relationships after four decades of relying on the Soviet Union to furnish its military arsenal. Such talk between former adversaries underscores the dramatic changes that have transformed Eastern Europe and defused one of history’s longest-running and most dangerous military standoffs.

After meeting with Cheney on Tuesday, the Polish defense minister, Vice Adm. Piotr Kolodziejczyk, said that Warsaw may consider an initial purchase of 12 F-16 fighter aircraft from the United States.

Cheney said Wednesday that while he did not “discuss or make specific commitments” to sell arms to Poland, “it may well make sense at some point in the future.”

He added that he had discussed the loosening of Western restrictions on the sale of high technology to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. After years of backing tighter controls on such trade, the Defense Department now favors significant loosening of the restrictions.

American officials said that Poland’s economic plight, as well as remaining restrictions on the sale of weapons to East Bloc countries, will make any such arms purchases a distant prospect for Poland. At the same time, they expressed pleasure at the burgeoning interest that Poland and other former East European allies of Moscow have shown in strengthening military ties with the United States.

Polish officials privately have expressed interest in building stronger ties with NATO, which since the early 1950s has fielded forces to stare down the Polish military and its Warsaw Pact allies. Poland so far has stopped short of seeking entry into the NATO alliance out of concern that it might provoke a strong Soviet reaction.

“They’re feeling very insecure, and they’re looking for an anchor right now,” said one senior U.S. defense official traveling with Cheney.

In the meantime, Cheney said, Polish officials support the continuation of the Atlantic Alliance as a means to keep the United States present and actively engaged in the future of Europe.