Commonwealth Chiefs Do Bit to Help Yeltsin : Diplomacy: But some at Belarus summit are likely to revise stance favoring a tighter union if and when the danger to the Russian president passes.

Leaders of the former Soviet republics, alarmed at the specter of a Communist rollback in Russia, threw their support Friday to Boris N. Yeltsin as he proposed that their states form a far tighter economic, political and military union.

But no firm decisions were taken on Yeltsin’s suggestions. And some participants in a one-day summit meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, held outside Belarus’ capital of Minsk, clearly will revise their stance if and when the danger to the Russian president passes.

For the moment, however, saving Yeltsin seemed first and foremost on Commonwealth leaders’ minds. As President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan put it: Yeltsin’s political foes “suffer from nostalgia for the old Union”--which would mean an end to their republics’ independence.

“We’ll never go back to the past,” Karimov vowed.

After the demise of the Soviet Union 16 months ago, many leaders of the former Soviet republics had regarded Yeltsin as the reincarnation of a Russian czar. But the fast-growing popularity in Russia of conservative Marxist and nationalistic forces, whose drive for power will collide with that of Yeltsin in a national referendum a week from Sunday, has caused a reassessment of that view by some.

“The future of the CIS, its content, its outlook, the democratic future of all our states within the CIS and outside it as well depend today on April 25,” Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, who has done his utmost to keep the Commonwealth a loose collective of states that has proven notoriously ineffective, told a post-summit news conference.

Such considerations meant that it was impossible to assess the leaders’ true reaction to Yeltsin’s proposals, some of which fly in the face of what such independence-minded leaders as Kravchuk have always deemed acceptable.

Summarizing his suggestions in a televised speech, Yeltsin proposed much closer cooperation and coordination in all fields to replace a Commonwealth that theoretically succeeded the Soviet Union but that largely exists only on paper.

Yeltsin said the Commonwealth should follow a coherent and unified foreign policy on key issues, possess a defense council and perhaps unified armed forces and have a working, supranational commission to ensure respect for human rights throughout Commonwealth territory.

But economics is the core issue, and Yeltsin said the former Soviet republics, which are still snared in trading and transportation webs created over seven decades of Soviet socialism, need to ensure greater economic coordination.

Most, including Russia, have economies now reeling from the twin shocks of market relations and independence.

Yeltsin specifically mentioned multinational corporations, coordinated investment policy, a single customs union and reversion to a single, supranational currency. He assured the other leaders seated around a circular table that his ideas “do not mean a return to the old Union structures.”

Speaking at the news conference later, Stanislav Shushkevich, chairman of Belarus’ Parliament, indicated that the economic realm is the one where the best chance lies of more concerted Commonwealth action.

Shushkevich revealed that during their meeting at a government resort at Zaslavl, on the outskirts of Minsk, none of the leaders or high-level envoys from the 10 Commonwealth members objected to the formation of customs and inter-bank unions.

The Commonwealth delegates--from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan--said they would meet again in mid-May after documents formalizing Yeltsin’s suggestions have been drafted for a vote. That session should demonstrate whether there is much genuine enthusiasm.

Speaking to the Interfax news agency in Minsk before he flew back to Moscow, Yeltsin claimed to have received the “strong, active support of all participants.”

It is incontestably true, as Yeltsin said in his speech to the meeting, that much of the “euphoria” that accompanied independence has evaporated. But so have hopes kindled by the creation of the Commonwealth. Karimov had been quoted Thursday as saying his hopes for the CIS had “become an illusion,” and the president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurad Nizayov, was reported to concur.

Last month, Yeltsin and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has consistently endorsed greater integration by the former Soviet republics, appealed to their colleagues to forge a much more active alliance. An appeal from Yeltsin led to the early scheduling of Friday’s summit, which had originally been scheduled for April 30 in Yerevan, Armenia.