THE MALTA SUMMIT : Bush Heads for Meeting ‘Full of Promise’

WASHINGTON —  With a departure speech remarkable for its warmth and optimism, President Bush headed for Malta on Thursday, saying that his meeting with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev represents “the beginning of a process as full of promise as any that we’ve known.”

He said he and Gorbachev “can work toward a level of European security, prosperity and peace as yet unknown in our lifetime.”

The United States and the Soviet Union “are not in some kind of competition; rather we’re both working to make the world a more peaceful one,” he added.

Although Bush has stressed repeatedly that no agreements will be reached at the two days of meetings this weekend aboard U.S. and Soviet warships off Malta, he and Gorbachev are expected to discuss the revolutionary changes in Eastern Europe, regional conflicts and the general direction of arms-control initiatives.

“Ours is a powerful and historic opportunity,” Bush said, adding that it was made possible by the strength of the U.S. commitment to its Western allies.

To reassure the North Atlantic Treaty Organization about the continued U.S. commitment to the defense of Europe, Bush has conducted a series of pre-summit consultations with other NATO leaders. He will give the NATO heads of state a post-summit briefing in Brussels.

At the same time, Pentagon officials took pains to head off an anticipated Soviet initiative designed to engage the United States in negotiations on naval arms control. In Rome on Wednesday, Gorbachev offered to open discussions with the United States and Italy, and perhaps in the United Nations, aimed at eliminating permanent U.S. and Soviet naval bases in the Mediterranean.

As the Malta summit has neared, the Soviets have drawn their naval forces in the Mediterranean down to unusually low levels: four warships and two naval support vessels. As U.S. naval officials have watched the withdrawals, they have girded for a Gorbachev initiative that some believe could go so far as to propose the withdrawal of all nuclear weapons from surface ships.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, responding in Rome to Gorbachev’s hints, echoed nervous U.S. naval officers.

“I have absolutely no reason to believe that it’s in our interest to enter into any kind of arms-control measure,” Cheney told reporters Wednesday.

Before Bush departed Thursday evening from Andrews Air Force Base, Md., for his overnight flight aboard Air Force One, he was sent several suggestions from Congress.

In one letter, 177 members of the House and 27 members of the Senate expressed opposition to the U.S. stand in favor of some role for the Khmer Rouge rebels in an interim government in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge is blamed for the deaths of 1 million Cambodians during its murderous rule in the late 1970s that was recounted in the movie “The Killing Fields.”

“We are concerned that any U.S. effort directly or indirectly to promote a power-sharing role for the Khmer Rouge--no matter how minimal--would represent an implicit legitimization of a movement the world finds abhorrent and would constitute a profound shift in our policy,” said the letter written by Rep. Chester G. Atkins (D-Mass.) and signed by the 204 lawmakers.

Another 31 members of the House urged the President to give priority to waiving the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which denies “most-favored-nation” trade status to the Soviet Union while that country restricts free emigration. The House members contended that rapidly increased emigration of Jews and others from the Soviet Union this year has entitled the Soviet Union to such a “reward,” if Bush gets assurances that the emigration trend will continue.

A group of 15 senators urged Bush to press Gorbachev to support independence for the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Noting that the United States has never recognized the Soviet Union’s takeover of the three countries by military force in 1940, the senators said U.S. trade or economic assistance must be linked to progress toward self-determination for the Baltic republics.

In another development related to the Malta talks, Rep. Stenhy H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said the Kremlin has resolved the vast majority of human rights cases on a list presented to Soviet leaders a year ago.

Meanwhile, in Malta, preparations were near completion for the arrivals of Bush and Gorbachev today.

The Maltese government has closed the Marsaxlokk Harbor, where the U.S. and Soviet ships will be anchored, to everyone but local fishermen. The large bay, normally a container shipping port, is separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow neck. It is one of several harbors in the Maltese islands and was chosen largely because it is less busy and easier to secure.

U.S. officials insist publicly that they do not believe that Malta poses any unusual security problems.

“I don’t think there’s greater concern about Malta than other places,” said Allan M. Cramer, spokesman for the Secret Service. “Sure, in some countries more things show up that we will have to contend with, but we still take all trips seriously--whether it’s Malta or England.”

Times staff writers Robin Wright and William J. Eaton, in Washington, and Richard T. Cooper, in Malta, contributed to this story.