U.S. Offers to Extend Missile Defense Curbs

WASHINGTON — The United States today offered a treaty to the Soviet Union that a U.S. official said could extend 1972 curbs on anti-missile defenses if the “Star Wars” program is not ready for deployment in the 1990s.

The official told the Associated Press that the proposal, presented at the Geneva arms talks, had the strong endorsement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were concerned that lifting the curbs could free the Soviets to deploy their own anti-missile defenses.

The U.S. official said Reagan had settled an internal dispute between the joint chiefs and their boss, Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci, by secretly approving the instructions to the U.S. negotiators for presentation in Geneva.

Under the U.S. draft, the two sides would pledge to observe the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty until 1994. The disagreement within the Administration centered on what course the United States would take at the end of that period.