U.S., Soviets Report Arms ‘Movement’

Top U.S. and Soviet diplomats held intense negotiations into the night Saturday aimed at completing the strategic arms-reduction treaty before Monday’s Western economic summit in London, apparently making progress on two of the three remaining issues.

The talks recessed just before midnight and were to resume today.

Brent Scowcroft, President Bush’s national security adviser, reported “movement on all major issues still outstanding” on the START pact, which has been in preparation for 10 years, saying he is encouraged even though a final agreement has not yet been reached.

“We made a proposal,” Scowcroft told reporters in Kennebunkport, Me., where President Bush was vacationing before leaving for the economic summit early today. “The Soviets have not accepted our proposal, but they have come a long way.”

The talks recessed because “not all the issues have been resolved at this time,” State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said in a written statement.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh and their delegations of technical experts will meet again this morning, Tutwiler said. The two men have postponed their departures for Europe, which together with their marathon negotiations was viewed as another sign of both sides’ determination to complete the agreement.

The main issue still outstanding involves “downloading”--whether to allow the Soviets to reduce their warhead count by removing some warheads from multiple-warhead missiles. Moscow wants the treaty to permit substantially more such “downloading” than Washington does.

Although the Soviet position appears attractive on its face, the White House--particularly Scowcroft--is concerned that in case of a confrontation the Soviets could easily load the warheads back onto the missiles and quickly increase the size of their arsenal.

The disagreement also has budgetary implications, especially for the Soviets, who most likely would develop new missiles--at considerable expense--to meet the START limits if downloading were prohibited or restricted.

Tutwiler’s statement said “much was accomplished” during the three days of almost continuous negotiations toward the agreement that would cut long-range offensive nuclear weapons by about a third and reduce the most dangerous of these weapons--missile warheads--by half.

Both sides want to close the deal before Monday, when the economic summit of the seven leading industrial nations begins in London. The summit will be considering Western aid to the Soviet Union.

Bush also wants to set a date for a U.S.-Soviet summit sometime in late July but has insisted that the START talks must be completed before he will agree to set a date.

Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will lunch together in London at the end of the economic summit, but that session is likely to be devoted to economic and political issues.

U.S. officials said the latest American proposal, made by Baker late Friday to speed the talks, calls for each side to disclose its “bottom line” position on the three outstanding issues, on condition that none would be settled until the entire package was accepted.

The two related issues are “downloading” and the issue of how to define a “new” missile. The United States wants to ensure that the Soviets cannot merely change the designation of an existing missile to achieve “downloading” by a different means.

The dispute involving the third issue--reporting of test data--is more complex. Both sides agree that in-flight test data must be provided to the other side as a hedge against surprise weapons developments. But the two were still apart at last report on such details as the radio frequencies and broadcast power to be used.