U.S., USSR Close to Signing Arms Treaty

GENEVA--The United States and Soviet Union ended three days of pre-summit talks yesterday with both sides appearing confident that a treaty scrapping intermediate-range nuclear weapons will be ready for signing next month.

President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev are scheduled to hold the summit in Washington December 7-10.

"A great deal of progress has been made over the past three days," an American source said. He described the talks as "very good and positive."

Negotiators ended the sessions "with a great deal of work having been accomplished, as agreed at the October 30 meeting" between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the Soviet foreign minister, the source said.

After that meeting, the two governments announced the summit plans and said the medium-range treaty would be signed. They also said Reagan and the Soviet leader hoped for another summit in 1988 at which they could sign an agreement on reducing long-range nuclear forces by 50 percent.

Yuli Vorontsov, chief Soviet negotiator, said in a Soviet television interview that work on the intermediate-range treaty should be completed by November 23.

A report of the interview by Tass, the official Soviet news agency, quoted Vorontsov as saying several difficulties arose late in negotiation. He said American delegates proposed that the warheads, guidance systems and rocket motors from its cruise missiles be kept intact when the missiles were destroyed.

"We asked the Americans what they are proposing to destroy and this turned out to be the missiles' casing and wings," he said, according to the Tass report. "This is, of course, not serious and we shall press for a real destruction of these missiles."

An arrangement was worked out for observers to watch destruction of missiles, but a snag developed over "artificial issues" about verification raised by the United States, Vorontsov said.

"We think we shall be able to persuade the American side to remove these artificial issues and that the treaty will be prepared for signing in time," he added.

The Tass report did not make clear why Vorontsov mentioned November 23 as the target date. U.S. officials have said Shultz and Shevardnadze might hold another meeting before November 26, Thanksgiving, if problems with the treaty remain.

Yesterday was devoted to two discussions of regional issues between Vorontsov, who is the first deputy Soviet foreign minister, and Michael Armacost, U.S. assistant secretary of state.

The American source would not give details. He said Kampelman and Armacost planned to return to Washington on Wednesday and would not hold a news conference in Geneva.

A senior official in Washington has said no breakthrough on Afghanistan is likely at the summit. But Gennady Gerasimov, chief spokesman of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, indicated the Kremlin wants out of its eight-year old military involvement.