Soviets Still Want Washington Summit, Kremlin Official Says

The Soviet Union still wants a full summit with President Reagan in Washington despite Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s call for an early meeting in Europe on a nuclear test ban, a senior official said Tuesday.

First Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy M. Kornienko said Gorbachev’s call last Saturday for Reagan to meet him to agree on a test ban in any Western European capital was aimed at a specific issue.

“Mikhail Gorbachev did not mean that this meeting, if it took place, would supplant the summit meeting which had been agreed upon in Geneva and which would be a visit by Mr. Gorbachev to Washington,” he told a news conference.

Cast Fresh Doubts

Gorbachev’s proposal, already rejected by the White House, had cast fresh doubts on his intentions about the summit, which both leaders agreed last November to hold this year.

Kornienko repeated the Soviet view that a date for the summit could be set as soon as the United States agreed that a “constructive outcome” would emerge from the meeting in the area of arms control.

He also reiterated the Kremlin’s current anger over what it sees as a defiant U.S. attitude to Soviet offers on arms control and a range of other issues including American actions against Moscow’s ally, Libya, last week.

“But we have strong nerves and we are not easily provoked into breaking off dialogue,” Kornienko added. “We shall continue making every effort to improve the international situation.”

Rejects Shultz Charge

He rejected a charge by Secretary of State George P. Shultz on Sunday that the Kremlin was trying to conduct dialogue through public statements rather than private diplomacy.

He said Moscow had informed Washington of Gorbachev’s statement after he delivered it on Soviet television, adding: “It’s up to us to decide what questions should be made publicly or through diplomatic channels or otherwise.”

Answering questions, Kornienko said there were no talks going on with the United States on the technical organization of the Washington summit because this would be premature without agreement on a date.

He said the Kremlin hopes that Washington’s decision to continue nuclear testing despite Gorbachev’s pleas for a mutual ban was not its final word.

He repeated Gorbachev’s statement that Moscow would resume its own testing after its eight-month pause as soon as Washington exploded its next device.