U.S. Urges Stringent Rules to Verify Nuclear Arms Pact

President Reagan, on the eve of his meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, said Monday that the United States is proposing “the most stringent verification regime of any arms control agreement” in the joint effort to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

Reagan did not disclose details of the verification plan, which was proposed as part of a formal package presented Monday by U.S. negotiators at arms control talks in Geneva. But it is known that the verification proposals include measures that the Soviets are reluctant to accept, particularly those involving on-site inspections of weapons facilities.

At the same time, a senior Administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that the meeting today between Reagan and Shevardnadze is unlikely to produce a date for a summit conference between the President and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Reagan’s comments, made in a written statement and a speech, and those of the senior official somewhat dampened several weeks of optimism that Shevardnadze’s visit would push the United States and Soviet Union beyond the last remaining obstacles to an agreement to rid their arsenals of the medium-range weapons.

But some analysts believe that the step taken by the Administration on Monday, which gives greater detail and depth to previous proposals that it has made in Geneva, indicates progress toward a further narrowing of the gap between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Over the weekend, the mood had been upbeat. Secretary of State George P. Shultz said Sunday that the two countries were down to the “nits and gnats,” which could be decided this week, in their effort to reach an agreement. And Shevardnadze said a few hours later upon his arrival in Washington that the two sides were “close to completing” the pact.

Reagan said that the United States called Monday for elimination of U.S. and Soviet intermediate-range missiles and launchers within three years, a ban on modernizing, producing or flight testing any intermediate-range weapon system and “a comprehensive verification regime.”

Within those limits, the Soviet Union would be required to eliminate its arsenal of shorter-range weapons--those capable of reaching targets within 300 to 600 miles--within one year. The United States has no such weapons. The Soviets have proposed eliminating all intermediate-range weapons--those with a range of from 300 to 3,000 miles--within five years, a senior Administration official said.

“With these new actions taken by the U.S., it’s now up to the Soviet Union to demonstrate whether or not it truly wants to conclude a treaty eliminating this class of U.S. and Soviet missiles,” said Reagan, who is scheduled to spend more than two hours with the Soviet foreign minister today in lunch and a more formal meeting at the White House.

Won’t Settle for Less

Reagan declared as vital the effective verification of adherence to the terms of a treaty, and he vowed: “We will not settle for anything less.”

The treaty under negotiation, if in effect today, would eliminate 348 medium-range, single-warhead Pershing 2 and cruise missiles that are deployed in Europe by the United States and about 670 Soviet medium-range (600 to 3,000 miles) and shorter-range (300 to 600 miles) missiles carrying about 1,550 warheads.

While Reagan’s remarks and those of the senior Administration official appeared to lower expectations that the meetings this week could bear fruit in the first nuclear arms control agreement of the 6 1/2-year-old Reagan Administration, they also would add to the drama if Shevardnadze wraps up the talks Thursday with a treaty in hand. Agreement on such a pact has been the central obstacle to a third Reagan-Gorbachev meeting.

Another senior Administration official, speaking on condition that she not be identified, referred to a letter to Reagan from Gorbachev that Shevardnadze said he is carrying and remarked: “Nobody wants to raise any expectations until you know what you’ve got.

“We don’t know what he’s bringing with him.”

Despite the optimistic comments of Shultz and the Soviet foreign minister Sunday, the senior official told reporters that she did not expect that the meetings would wrap up the treaty “in principle.”

“The complexity of this verification regime is going to take more than 2 1/2 days,” she said.

She said she did not expect the foreign minister to be carrying with him specific dates for a summit between Reagan and Gorbachev, who met last October in Iceland. She added that she believes that, before a summit could be announced, Shevardnadze would have to return to Moscow and confer with Gorbachev.

Shevardnadze’s official schedule begins with an early morning meeting at the State Department with Shultz, the White House meeting and lunch and a second session at the State Department. He will meet again with Shultz on Wednesday and Thursday and informally Thursday evening with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.