West Germany Offers Aid Package to East

BERLIN--West Germany said yesterday it was willing to give East Germany massive financial aid in the style of the postwar U.S. Marshall Plan, but demanded political and economic reforms the Communists have so far rejected.

East Germany's new premier said the Berlin Wall must remain, to keep AIDS, crime and other Western problems out of his country. He promised a coalition government but did not say whether the opposition could join it.

After a week of dramatic developments in East European countries, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said in Moscow:

"They have a common direction, which fosters the building of a European home, for it makes the countries closer, more open and creates new opportunities for human contact and an equal exchange."

The Liberal Democrats, an East German party that is allied with the Communists but shows signs of independence, said pro-democracy groups should be invited to "round-table" talks about East Germany's future.

Discussions this spring between Polish authorities and Solidarity, which were also given the "roundtable" name, led to a non-Communist government in Poland.

Mayor Walter Momper of West Berlin said the sudden opening of East Germany's borders was creating traffic jams, currency problems and other economic difficulties the two governments must resolve.

Economics Minister Helmut Haussmann of West Germany announced a six-point aid plan including investments, joint ventures and modernizing East Germany's dilapidated communications and transport systems.

Haussmann did not name a figure for the aid and said East Germany must achieve "thorough change" in its centrally directed economy.

Reforms promised so far by Communist Party leader Egon Krenz, who took over last month from hard-liner Erich Honecker, have resulted in more questions than answers, Haussmann said in Bonn.

He compared his proposal to the Marshall Plan devised by Secretary of State George C. Marshall, which provided more than $12 billion in American aid in 1948-51 to help Europe recover from the war.

East German authorities have rejected the idea of adopting a complete free-market system and new Premier Hans Modrow, a leading reformer, says he wants "step-by-step" economic changes.

Modrow appears to want a streamlining of the bureaucracy, but has given no indication he will urge sweeping changes such as those in Hungary and Poland.

He was quoted Tuesday in the West German newspaper Bild as saying the Berlin Wall can remain open to travel, but will not come down.

"In our country there is little criminal activity...cases of AIDS and drugs are virtually unknown," he was quoted as saying. "Our people are asking themselves why they shouldn't just leave that as it is."

ADN, the official news agency, said the government might open a part of the wall near the Brandenburg Gate as yet another passage between East and West Berlin. The high-columned monument is near the wall in East Berlin and is among the city's best known symbols.

Before East Germany opened its borders Thursday, the gate had been a major rallying point for demonstrators seeking freedom to travel to the West. Hundreds of West Berliners gathered there Tuesday in hopes a hole would be opened.