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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991                   TAG: 9102150052
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: VIENNA                                LENGTH: Medium

TROOP-LIMIT TALKS RESUME/ NEGOTIATION PROGRESS STYMIED BY DISPUTE WITH SOVIETS

But NATO and Warsaw Pact representatives said they expected little progress until a dispute over the Soviet interpretation of the arms treaty signed in November is resolved.

When the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was signed in Paris, it was heralded as the end of the Cold War and the start of a new security arrangement in Europe.

But this month Secretary of State James Baker and Western diplomats accused the Soviets of failing to comply with the pact.

The Bush administration has said it will not submit the treaty to Congress for approval until the dispute is cleared up, and Western diplomats here said they expected little progress in the new talks in the meantime.

The round of talks that opened here Thursday, called for in the treaty, has as its goal limits on the number of troops in Europe and establishment of a system of aerial inspection for verification.

Troop levels are thought likely to be discussed first, while the aerial inspection issue may depend on progress in "open skies" talks, which started last year in Ottawa and Budapest, a Western diplomat said.

Agreement in these talks was expected in time for a follow-up meeting next year in Helsinki of the Conference On Security And Cooperation In Europe.

But the disagreement over the stipulations of the treaty signed last fall seems to have stymied these negotiations.

"Western delegations are of the opinion that there's no point in making any new obligations on a new treaty when a major participant is not observing conditions set down in the first treaty," a Western diplomat said.

Specifically, Baker, other Western diplomats and representatives of most Warsaw Pact nations have said the Soviet Union is trying to exempt some forces, including three motorized rifle divisions, from cuts required by the treaty by relabeling them as coastal defenses or naval forces.

The exemption Moscow is seeking would include about 3,500 tanks, artillery and armored combat vehicles, diplomats said.

The Soviets maintain the mandate for the conventional forces treaty did not cover naval forces, while Western negotiators say all land forces are subject to the treaty, no matter to what branch of the forces they belong.

The United States has long resisted Soviet pressure to negotiate on a reduction in its naval forces, which are vastly superior to Moscow's.

Warsaw Pact and Western diplomats said in a statement Thursday before the session, the chief Soviet delegate, Oleg Grinevsky, said the dispute over the treaty interpretation should be worked out in the Joint Consultative Group, which represents all 22 nations, rather than letting it interfere with progress in these talks.

The Soviet Union and other nations submitted updated information on their forces, as required by the treaty.

Western diplomats have said the numbers supplied in November that were too low for equipment subject to cuts in the treaty. They said that while it would take time to analyze the new figures, a cursory review showed little change in the Soviet figures.