REAGAN SAYS U.S. TO OFFER MISSILE TREATY
President Reagan said the United
States would offer a draft treaty on medium-range missile
reductions at talks with the Soviet Union in Geneva tomorrow.
    Reagan also said in a brief televised appearance in the
White House briefing room that he was summoning Ambassador Max
Kampelman and the other top U.S. arms negotiators home for
consultations later this week. He said they will then return to
Geneva for detailed negotiations on the arms pact.
    Welcoming Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's offer Saturday
to proceed with a treaty on Intermediate Range Nuclear forces
(INF) separate from strategic and space weapons, Reagan said:
"This removes a serious obstacle to progress towards INF
reductions."
    "To seize this new opportunity I have instructed our
negotiators to begin presentation of our draft INF treaty text
at Geneva tomoorrow," Reagan said.
    He said he wanted to stress that of the issues remaining to
be resolved in the negotiations on medium-range U.S. and Soviet
missiles, "none is more important than verification ... Any
agreement must be effectively verifiable."
    The United States has been working closely with allies and
friends in Europe and Asia to develop a proposed treaty on
reducing these weapons with an eye to their eventual
elimination, the president said.
     He said the treaty draft followed the formula he agreed
upon with Gorbachev at their summit meeting last October in
Reykjavik, Iceland, which was shelved when the Soviet leader
insisted on linking approval of such a pact to agreement on
long-range strategic missiles and anti-missile defense.
    "I remain firmly committed to these objectives," he said.
    He said Gorbachev's new offer Saturday ending the linkage
of the three areas of negotiations removed a major barrier to
agreement and was consistent with the Soviet position at the
earlier Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Geneva in November 1985.
 Reuter
