
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 12, 1990                   TAG: 9006120049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

BALTIC HEADS, GORBACHEV TALK

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has agreed to meet with the presidents of the three Baltic republics for the first time since he branded their independence moves unconstitutional, spokesmen said Monday.

Today's scheduled meeting comes amid other new contacts between the Kremlin and Lithuania - the Baltic republic that has taken the boldest moves toward independence and has suffered most. Moscow's economic blockade against Lithuania enters its third month next week.

It also comes one week after Gorbachev returned from the United States, where congressional leaders made clear they would hold up approval of a U.S.-Soviet trade deal that Gorbachev wants until the embargo on Lithuania is lifted.

The session between Gorbachev and the Baltic presidents could signal a new Kremlin diplomatic initiative to try to break the impasse over the republics' independence campaigns.

Gorbachev has said the republics are free to pursue independence, but insists they do so in accordance with Soviet constitutional guidelines that were set down in April and require a referendum, legislative approval and a wait of up to five years.

Presidents Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania, Arnold Ruutel of Estonia and Anatoly Gorbunov of Latvia will meet with Gorbachev, as well as his Federation Council, a new presidential advisory body, according to spokesmen from the three republics.

by CNB