U.S., Bonn Seek to End Arms Rift : White House Offers Proposals on Missiles; Kohl Signals Flexibility

WASHINGTON —  The United States and West Germany are moving painfully toward a solution to their dispute over short-range nuclear missiles and may patch up the rift in time for the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to celebrate their regained unity at a summit meeting this month, officials said Tuesday.

Bush Administration officials said that they have proposed several solutions to the quarrel within the alliance, which some U.S. and European diplomats have called the most serious dispute in the 40 years of NATO history.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl also signaled new flexibility on Tuesday, saying that he is “very optimistic” a compromise can be reached by the time President Bush travels to Europe in three weeks.

“I am ready to make a contribution to that compromise and see good chances of one,” Kohl told reporters during a visit to Rome.

No Agreement on Terms

But American and German officials said that, while both governments want to end their embarrassing dispute in time for the summit, no agreement has been reached on the terms of the reconciliation.

In particular, they said, the Bush Administration is still resisting West Germany’s call for negotiations with the Soviet Union to reduce the number of short-range missiles--although some officials said they believe a compromise on that point will be worked out.

And the acid tone of some officials’ comments made it clear that between the West’s two most powerful allies, feelings are still bruised.

“We really didn’t need this problem right now,” a senior U.S. official complained of the Germans’ actions. “It has put these issues under a microscope at a time when we wanted to be talking about the unity of the West.”

Further, the Reagan Administration’s top arms control adviser said Tuesday that Bush was making a grave mistake in refusing to open talks with the Soviet Union on the short-range missiles.

Paul H. Nitze, in an interview with the New York Times after he left office Monday, indicated that he sharply disagreed with the current Administration on the divisive issue.

The veteran negotiator said that he believes negotiations on reducing the weapons would be in the military interest of the West because such talks would provide an opportunity to eliminate a large Soviet advantage. He also said the Bush approach is “politically impossible for much of Europe,” according to the New York Times.

The Bonn government has broken with the United States on two issues dealing with NATO’s short-range nuclear missiles--those with a range below 300 miles, most of which are based in West Germany. Kohl wants the alliance to delay any decision on whether to build a more modern missile until after his country’s next election in 1990, and, last month, he reversed his own position and called for early negotiations with the Soviet Union to reduce the number of missiles on both sides of Europe’s East-West divide.

The West German public is strongly in favor of eliminating all short-range nuclear missiles, in part because most would explode on German soil if they were ever used. But NATO military planners believe that the missiles are essential to counter the Soviet Bloc’s advantage in conventional military forces in Europe and say that the current missiles are quickly becoming obsolete.

6 Countries Support Bonn

The issue has divided the alliance into two sometimes-contentious camps, with six countries including Italy and Norway supporting the German stand while Britain and the Netherlands have backed the United States. Others, including France, have taken no clear position.

U.S. and West German officials said that at least four possible solutions have been discussed in quiet consultations among the 16 NATO governments:

-- An announcement that the United States would unilaterally reduce NATO’s 88 aging Lance short-range missile launchers while it is installing a smaller number of more modern missiles, coupled with a challenge to the Soviet Union to reduce its estimated 1,400 short-range launchers to the same level. The Bush Administration suggested this approach last week in talks with the visiting West German foreign and defense ministers, officials said.

-- A call for negotiations with the Soviet Union on short-range missiles, as soon as substantial progress is made in the current Vienna talks to reduce conventional armed forces in Europe. This was proposed by the Kohl government, but the Administration is resisting the idea. U.S. officials say they fear that, once such talks begin, the pressure for eliminating all short-range nuclear missiles will prove irresistible--and give the Soviet Union military superiority on the ground.

-- Agreement by West Germany to develop an accurate and powerful non-nuclear missile that eventually could replace the short-range nuclear force. Some Administration officials have proposed this as part of a solution, but a West German official said that the Kohl government does not favor the idea.

-- The appointment of a special NATO committee to study the issue further--essentially, an agreement simply to ignore the problem for the short run and to allow the alliance’s leaders to meet in Brussels on schedule May 29 and 30. But officials on both sides admit that this would be an admission of failure to solve the problem.

Greatest Sticking Point

The greatest sticking point remains the German government’s desire for some kind of NATO endorsement of early negotiations over short-range missiles, officials said.

“We want a mandate for these talks,” a West German official said. “The question is, how do we condition the mandate? We could say that we want these talks, but with all deliberate speed, as the American phrase goes”--a reference to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ordered school desegregation but failed to order a specific timetable. He added: “We could take into account the progress of the talks in Vienna,” the negotiations on conventional armed forces in Europe.

In the past, Bush Administration officials have said that they could agree to negotiations on short-range missiles--but only after ending the East-West imbalance in conventional armed forces, which the missiles are intended to counterbalance. The Vienna talks are aimed at that issue, but negotiators there do not expect to reach an agreement for several years.

So sensitive has this point become that State Department spokesman Margaret Tutwiler and other U.S. officials refused to repeat their own previous position--because, said one, “we don’t want to entertain the idea of negotiations at all” in the face of the Germans’ demands.

In public, the Administration has been unyielding, reflecting continuing annoyance at the Germans’ highly public dissent from U.S. policy--a dissent that some U.S. officials charged was intended for Kohl’s internal political audience.

‘Our Views Have Not Changed’

“I would like to emphasize that our views have not changed,” Tutwiler said. She said that the Administration is seeking “a solution acceptable to all allies”--but not a “compromise,” that could imply a softening of the U.S. position.

West German officials, on the other hand, spent much of the day stressing their flexibility.

“We have a position but it’s our starting position for negotiations within the alliance,” said one. “We are not like Martin Luther, saying ‘Here I stand, I cannot otherwise.’ ”

A U.S. official took some satisfaction at that and suggested that the Germans might be ready to back down in the face of the Administration’s resistance.

“The ball’s in their court,” the official said. “They look like they’re tearing up the alliance, and I don’t think they want that on their heads.”

Times staff writer John M. Broder contributed to this article.