NATO Urges Soviets to Keep A-Arms in Check : Diplomacy: But as Rome summit closes, alliance also hails ‘new era of partnership’ with former East Bloc foes.

Leaders at the NATO summit on Friday called on the Soviet Union to keep its nuclear weapons under “a single authority” to ensure European security, even as the alliance invited Moscow’s onetime satellites--formerly hostile Communist nations in Eastern Europe--to participate in an unprecedented, high-level meeting next month in “a new era of partnership.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization also issued a statement on Yugoslavia, saying its members would not recognize any new borders in that fragmenting country brought about by the use of force.

As the Rome NATO summit concluded, President Bush called the two-day session “a landmark event.”

“We took decisive steps in transforming the Atlantic Alliance,” the President said, declaring also that European and American security is “indivisible. . . . Because of its Atlantic character, the alliance cannot be replaced--even in the long run.” America’s allies, said Bush, “shared these views” and accept the United States as the natural leader of the alliance.

NATO has been painfully re-examining its security role, left uncertain after the successful end of the Cold War against the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. On Thursday, NATO published a new strategic doctrine calling for smaller, more flexible military forces and much less reliance on nuclear weapons.

The alliance on Friday attempted to deal with the desire of several Eastern European nations to seek protection under the NATO security umbrella. NATO did not go as far as to offer these nations associate memberships. As British Prime Minister John Major put it, accepting Eastern European nations as NATO members “was some time away.” Bush also said that it is “premature” to talk about new full members in the alliance.

But NATO, in a statement, did propose regular gatherings of East-West military and political officials under alliance sponsorship. The first such meeting is scheduled for Dec. 20 in Brussels with foreign ministers from the 16 NATO nations, the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and the three new Baltic states. NATO’s final communique said these ministers would “issue a joint political declaration to launch this new era of partnership.”

The new group might be called the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, the statement said, proposing that there may be annual meetings of foreign ministers and more frequent sessions at the ambassador level.

The sessions also would involve military and political experts from all the countries, who would exchange expertise.

NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner said Friday that the alliance’s move toward the Eastern European states is an “important stage in the transformation of NATO” to its post-Cold War role.

The final NATO communique also suggested that the 38-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) should examine the possibility of intervening “through peaceful means” in countries that grossly violate conference commitments--even without the consent of the state concerned.

France expressed concern about the final NATO communique on the economy and military security in the Soviet Union. French President Francois Mitterrand refused to sign the NATO statement, asserting it was an undue interference by the alliance in another country’s business. NATO, Mitterrand said, is not a “holy alliance” and it should not dictate to other countries on their internal policies.

But Mitterrand found himself the odd man out, and while he did not sign the Soviet statement, he did not veto it.

NATO reaffirmed that it sees no conflict between the alliance and the Western European Union, a military-oriented group of nine European nations. But this would be true only if the union remains a European pillar of NATO and recognizes the critical importance of the United States. Britain’s Major insisted that the union should not come under the authority of the European Community, nor should it operate independently of NATO with its key links to the United States.

The Word From NATO

The United States and 15 other NATO nations concluded a two-day summit in Italy. Among the highlights:

SOVIET NUCLEAR ARMS. The Western allies urged strong central control of Soviet nuclear weapons, calling on the Soviet Union to abide by international arms treaties.

NATO’S FUTURE. Alliance leaders embraced a strategic policy calling for fewer soldiers, more mobile forces and fewer nuclear weapons. The final declaration dropped an earlier proposal that NATO’s military could be put to use in U.N. peacekeeping missions.

U.S. LEADERSHIP. A summit-ending declaration reaffirmed the United States’ traditional lead role in NATO.

FRENCH DISSENT. France refused to sign the summit declaration relating to military security and economic policies in the Soviet Union, with President Francois Mitterrand calling it undue interference in another nation’s affairs.

BROADER REACH. There was talk of closer ties, but not membership, for members of the disbanded Warsaw Pact and for Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

YUGOSLAVIA. Leaders urged the warring Yugoslav states to cooperate with peacemaking efforts by the 12-nation European Community.

MORE TALKS. The Soviet Union and its one-time allies were invited to join with NATO countries in a new North Atlantic “cooperation council” to be launched Dec. 20 at NATO headquarters in Brussels.