Schultz, Soviet Agree on Verification

GENEVA--The United States and Soviet Union settled their differences yesterday on a treaty to scrap medium-range missiles and sent the agreement to the U.S. Senate in an effort to speed ratification of the pact before the Moscow summit.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, winding up two days of talks with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, told reporters; "We have reached a completely satisfactory agreement on all of those issues."

The Senate postponed debate on the treaty Monday while some members accused Moscow of backsliding and leaving loopholes for cheating. But Shultz said the differences over verifying compliance with the pact were a result of implementing an unprecedented system of onsite inspection.

"Occasionally, they'll have an argument," Shultz said of the technicians who will carry out the agreement to destroy 683 Soviet missiles and 364 U.S. missiles with a range of 315 to 3,125 miles. "That's life."

He called the settlement he reached with Shevardnadze "absolutely satisfactory." It was initialed by Maynard Glitman, who negotiated the treaty, and Col. Gen. Nikolai Chervov, the senior arms control adviser to the Soviet military.

Shultz said Glitman and Lt. Gen. Colin Powell, the U.S. national security adviser, would fly to Washington to report to the Senate today.

"I think it will be well-received," Shultz said.

The Moscow meeting between President Reagan and Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev is scheduled to begin May 29.

Chief U.S. negotiator Max Kampelman and Soviet negotiator Viktor P. Karpov signed another document at the Soviet mission that guarantees any futuristic weapons developed in the intermediate-range also would be banned under the treaty.

Two of the principal stumbling blocks to verification of the treaty dealt with U.S. demands to inspect Soviet missile containers big enough to hold only a stage of a rocket and the issue off how much access U.S. inspectors will have to Soviet missile plants and bases.

Other issues dealt with photographing equipment, updating data exchanged between the two sides and the size and weight of vehicles that can be inspected leaving Votkinsk, where Soviet SS-20 missiles are assembled.

The pact on intermediate-range missiles is unprecedented in its provisions for on-site inspection to guard against infractions. It also is the first U.S.-Soviet agreement to eliminate an entire category of nuclear weapons.

The document on futuristic weapons was aimed at persuading Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and other critics that the ban would apply to intermediaterange weapons that have not been developed yet.

Glitman and Powell were taking the second document to the Senate as well. While Shultz obviously was satisfied with the results, he said "what the Senate does is up to the Senate."

With evident relief, however, he told reporters: "I hope I've heard the last of INF [Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces] at these ministerials."

Shevardnadze, at a separate news conference, said the Soviets did not view the differences as technical but as "very serious problems that required political decisions." He added: "And such solutions were found."

The Soviet minister said "acting in the spirit of good will, both sides took steps to relieve the concerns of each other."

Shultz and Shevardnadze declined to provide specific details of how the dispute was resolved.

But a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the main sticking point was a Soviet demand to inspect Pershing 1-A missiles stored in the United States.

"They can't inspect the P1-As, but we told them where they were and how many," the official said.

Regarding missile canisters, the official said American inspectors will be able to look inside, but not take the parts out. "They gave in enough," he said.

On a related subject, Shultz ruled out completing another treaty to reduce U.S. and Soviet long-range nuclear weapons arsenals by 30 to 50 percent.