U.S. Warns Soviets Relations ‘at Risk’ in Lithuania Crisis : Diplomacy: Baker tells Shevardnadze that a military crackdown on the republic could threaten the superpower relationship. Three days of talks end.

WASHINGTON —  A Soviet military crackdown in Lithuania would “put at risk” the entire U.S.-Soviet relationship, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Friday at the conclusion of three days of intensive talks with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

“The signal has been clearly sent and is clearly understood,” Baker told a press conference. A few hours earlier, President Bush said that Soviet behavior in Lithuania “could adversely affect the prospects” for the newly scheduled May 30-June 3 summit and future relations between the superpowers.

However, Baker refused to speculate on the kind of Soviet action that would trigger a U.S. response. And he implied that Washington would not object to steps taken by Soviet police to prevent ethnic conflict in Lithuania.

Shevardnadze, who preceded Baker at the State Department press conference, seemed to be reassured by what he heard during a nearly 2 1/2-hour meeting with Bush and in much longer sessions with Baker.

“I don’t think there is a basis for any concern over a deterioration in Soviet-American relations,” he said.

Talking to reporters earlier in the White House driveway, Shevardnadze said that, if necessary, Moscow will use its militia or national police with “a clear conscience” to prevent clashes between pro-independence Lithuanians and the republic’s minority Russian and Polish populations, many of whom oppose the break with Moscow.

“It is something that we don’t like, but we have to do it in order to make sure that there is public order,” he said.

“Not all the people in Lithuania (support independence),” he added. “It is possible there might be conflicts.”

Asked about Shevardnadze’s remarks, Baker said, “Of course I would be disturbed if I thought that conflict might erupt. We would like to see this matter resolved peacefully and not through conflict.”

The crisis in Lithuania overshadowed the Baker-Shevardnadze meetings, which were intended to prepare the way for the second summit between Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Although both Baker and Shevardnadze expressed confidence that the summit would be successful, they conceded that they made very little progress this week on arms control, usually the staple issue of superpower summits.

The two men agreed to continue their talks May 16-19 in Moscow, less than two weeks before the summit is scheduled to begin in Washington.

A senior U.S. official said that Washington was disappointed at Shevardnadze’s unwillingness to yield on proposals to limit both nuclear and conventional arms.

Shevardnadze acknowledged only that “certain difficulties” developed in the strategic arms reduction talks. He declined to elaborate but predicted that the impasse would be broken when he and Baker resume their discussion.

“Such things can happen in the concluding stages of negotiations,” Shevardnadze said.

Baker said, “We made progress on a number of START issues, including mobile missile verification and non-circumvention. However, we have not as yet come to closure on air-launched cruise missiles and sea-launched cruise missiles. That is a disappointment.”

He said some progress was made on conventional arms, chemical weapons and nuclear testing, although “more work is needed in these areas also.”

There was no agreement on the allowable range of sea-launched cruise missiles or on how to distinguish nuclear-armed missiles that would be limited by the treaty from missiles with high-explosive warheads that would not be limited, Baker added.

Both men also said there was disagreement over the impact of conventional arms limitations on combat aircraft. Shevardnadze said Moscow wants the United States and the Soviet Union to be limited to equal numbers of warplanes based in Europe outside the borders of the two countries. Baker said that idea was “unattractive.”

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater outlined some of the arrangements for the Bush-Gorbachev meeting. He said Gorbachev will arrive in Washington on May 30, and the first session between the two presidents will be held that day, perhaps at a state dinner. He said the summit will take up the full five days allotted to it.

The White House continued to hold open the possibility that at least some of Gorbachev’s time would be spent outside Washington, perhaps at Bush’s vacation home in Kennebunkport, Me., but prospects for such a trip appeared to fade somewhat Friday. Asked about it, Bush said only, “I’m not sure.”

“Most of the summit will clearly be in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “But beyond that, the agenda, the time frame is open.”

For a brief period Friday, Shevardnadze seemed to be edging toward acceptance of the Western demand that a reunified Germany be in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Soviet foreign minister said he was sure that a compromise could be found that would be acceptable both to NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

Fitzwater said “there seemed to be movement” on German unification.

But a few hours later, Shevardnadze dashed all talk of accommodation.

“We were not persuaded by the arguments we have heard for including a united Germany in NATO,” he said, adding that such an arrangement would be “one-sided.”

Instead, he called for some sort of “non-bloc security measure,” such as abolishing both NATO and the Warsaw Pact and relying instead on the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. That conference includes all members of both alliances as well as such tiny nonaligned members as Malta and the Vatican.

As an alternative, Shevardnadze said, perhaps a united Germany could be a member of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

Baker rejected both ideas. He said the 35-nation conference could not serve the functions of NATO. And he said that Shevardnadze had not even raised the idea of Germany joining both alliances until he did so at his press conference.

Both Baker and Shevardnadze called for a referendum to settle the question of Lithuanian independence. Neither man went into detail, but it seemed that Shevardnadze had in mind a plebiscite with far more strings attached than Baker was suggesting.

In a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Bush said the United States was not trying to tell Moscow what to do in Lithuania.

“We’re telling them what not to do. . . . Don’t use force,” he said. “Do what you yourselves say you want to do--dialogue, discuss, do not use force--because we have an awful lot at stake in the U.S.-Soviet relationship, an enormous amount at stake. . . . This is a major relationship that affects the lives of people all over the world.”

Times staff writer David Lauter contributed to this report.

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