Don't Call Us, We'll Call You

By DAVID ELLIS

Mikhail Gorbachev is determined to meet with George Bush sometime this summer, but Washington will continue to balk until the Soviet leader makes a few more arms-control concessions. While Kremlin officials have repeatedly predicted a June rendezvous, their U.S. counterparts have bridled at the idea because of unresolved issues. Negotiators still haven't decided how to verify a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), and U.S. arms experts complain that Moscow is undermining the agreement on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) by removing some military units from the treaty's jurisdiction. Even the location of a potential summit is up in the air: the recent U.S. embassy fire will probably force the two leaders to hold most of their talks in Leningrad. That at least would avoid a touchy problem. Gorbachev advisers have told Washington they don't want Bush to meet with Boris Yeltsin, maverick leader of the Russian republic.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart