Arms Pact, July Summit a Bit Closer, Baker Says : Diplomacy: Soviet envoy offers progress on two of three issues blocking a strategic weapons treaty.

Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh made “meaningful and substantial” proposals on two of the three issues blocking a strategic arms reduction treaty Thursday, nudging the superpowers a bit closer to a July summit meeting, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said.

With Bessmertnykh at his side, Baker said Moscow’s new compromise offers will be studied by U.S. arms control experts overnight in preparation for a resumption of his meeting with the Soviet foreign minister today.

While declining to discuss details, Baker said the latest Soviet suggestions were directed at settling long-festering disputes over new types of weapons and encryption of telemetry data from missile tests. He said the third dispute, known to arms control specialists as “downloading,” remained “a problem area.”

Reminded that President Bush said recently that the complex strategic arms reduction treaty (START) was 96% complete, Baker said: “If we were 96% a couple of weeks ago, we are 97% now. But we have to be 100%.”

Bush has said repeatedly that he would like to visit Moscow for summit talks with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev before the end of this month but that he will not go unless negotiators have completed work on a treaty slashing superpower arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by more than one-third.

Although Bessmertnykh did not bring a new concession on the downloading issue, he asserted that the matter is not “stalemated or static.” He said the most recent proposal on the subject was contained in a letter from Gorbachev to Bush last month and that Moscow is awaiting an American response. Baker agreed that the Soviets made the latest offer but he insisted that “we are nowhere near home free on that issue.”

By making the most recent compromise proposals on all three sticking points, Moscow seems to be demonstrating that it is far more anxious than Washington to complete the negotiations. Bessmertnykh was accompanied by Gen. Mikhail Moiseyev, chief of the Soviet general staff, an indication to U.S. officials that the Soviets were ready to make final decisions.

“If Gen. Moiseyev or myself were not prepared to discuss deeply the issues and to take the decisions, we would rather stay in Moscow,” Bessmertnykh said. “But we came, so this is an indication that we shall be trying to solve the issues.”

Some U.S. officials have suggested that Gorbachev wants to complete work on the treaty before the London summit meeting next week of the world’s richest democracies, known as the Group of Seven. The Soviet president is scheduled to address the summit, apparently in an effort to obtain help for his beleaguered economy.

However, Bush said in a news conference at his vacation home in Kennebunkport, Me., that “there is no linkage” between conclusion of an arms pact and the provision of economic aid for the Soviet Union.

Earlier in the day, Bessmertnykh met briefly with Bush before the President headed to Kennebunkport to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu.

Before sitting down with Bessmertnykh, Baker urged the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to approve speedy ratification of the 24-nation Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which imposes deep cuts in tanks, artillery and other non-nuclear arms stationed in Europe.

“We think this is a darn good treaty and . . . that it very well serves our strategic, political and economic interests,” Baker said.

Times staff writers Doyle McManus in Washington and James Gerstenzang in Kennebunkport, Me., contributed to this report.