DIPLOMACY : Russia and Norway Agree to Fight Nuclear Waste, Pollution

Russia and Norway launched a joint offensive Tuesday against pollution and nuclear waste near their common frontier but failed to clear the air over NATO’s plans to expand eastward.

President Boris N. Yeltsin, who left for home late Tuesday after his first official visit to Norway, agreed with Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland on measures to reduce emissions from Russia’s huge smoke-billowing factories on the Kola Peninsula.

A joint declaration said the two leaders also plan to set up a fund to clean up nuclear waste and to work for global nuclear disarmament.

Yeltsin said he is pleased with the results of his two-day visit.

“The measures on which we agreed, including those on the Pechenga nickel complex, will clean up a very large territory,” he said, referring to planned work on reconstruction to cut emissions.

But Yeltsin’s stay in Oslo failed to clear up differences over North Atlantic Treaty Organization plans to incorporate former Soviet Bloc states in central and eastern Europe.

Russia opposes NATO’s eastward expansion, which it sees as a threat to its security. But Yeltsin had hinted Monday that he would not object to countries joining NATO’s political structures while staying out of its military wing.

But on Tuesday he told reporters: “NATO is a very difficult question.” Rather than pursue them with Norway, he added, “we’ll be discussing these questions with [leaders] of NATO and the United States.”