Kremlin Pledges Not to Storm Parliament

VILNIUS, U.S.S.R.--The Kremlin promised today not to attack the Lithuanian parliament but wary Baltic residents said they feared a further crackdown while the world watches the Persian Gulf war.

In Paris, the European Community threatened to cut off all Soviet aid, including emergency food supplies, if Moscow continues repressing the Baltic republics.

Both Lithuania's Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Estonia, were reported calm today. The official Tass news agency said the Soviet military and Estonian officials had reached agreement on the contentious issue of conscripting Estonian youths into military service.

Maj. Gen. Yuri Nauman, a representative of the Soviet Defense Ministry, told a news conference today in Vilnius that soldiers would not try to seize the Lithuanian parliament building, headquarters of the government that declared independence in March.

A military attack on the republic's broadcasting center early Sunday left 14 people dead. Since the attack, Lithuanians have built concrete barricades around parliament and dug an anti-tank trench behind it.

"I think the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania has put up such fences and trenches that we simply have no desire to appear there," Nauman said. "Such an action will not be taken. It's simply not needed by the military."

He said the legislature could function "as long as the Lithuanian people consider it necessary."

Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis also met with an envoy sent by President Mikhail Gorbachev, Georgy Tarazevich, for about two and a half hours.

"It seems that Mr. Tarazevich understands the situation in Lithuania, and he promises his assistance in trying to communicate with the military," Landsbergis said in comments distributed by the legislature's Bureau of Information.

"My mission is to bring assistance to you and your legitimate Lithuanian government and parliament in how to restore normal life and find ways of constructive cooperation with the union," Tarazevich said in comments to the Lithuanian parliament.

However, no details of their talks were released.

In Paris, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jacques Poos, whose country holds the rotating Presidency of the European Community, said, "All forms of aid will be suspended if repression and the use of force continues or get worse."

He spoke to reporters after EC foreign ministers met in a session devoted largely to the gulf war.

In another development, Soviet representatives rejected a proposal supported by the United States, Canada and other European countries for an international conference on the Baltic crackdown.

Lithuanian TV, now under control of a Soviet-backed group called the National Salvation Front, went back on the air this evening. The Lithuanian news agency ELTA reported that the nationalist government also resumed broadcasting from Lithuania's second-largest city, Kaunas.

A motley group of 400-600 men continued to guard Lithuania's parliament. Many slept on couches or in sleeping bags during the day. Others filled sandbags.

A number carried hunting rifles and shotguns, some of which looked 50 years old.

"The war in the gulf undoubtedly increases the chances on an attack on us. We all know that," said Vaidila Mindausas, one of the guards at the Lithuanian parliament.

Inese Birzniece, a Latvian government spokesperson, said Latvians had much the same reaction, but turned more optimistic when they heard reports of the success of the anti-Iraqi operation.

Tass quoted a Soviet Army deputy chief of staff, Col. Gen. Grigory Krivosheyev, as saying an agreement was struck between Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov and Estonian Prime Minister Edgar Savisaar on military service for Estonian men. Tass said the accord will allow some Estonian draftees to serve in Estonia.

In a sharp attack on Gorbachev, Tass commentator Andrei Orlov, known for his independent views, said Lithuania "set the example of lawlessness" with its declaration of independence, but this by no means justifies the use of military force, including tanks, against civilians."