Gorbachev Welcomes U.S. Bid to Cut Troops in Europe

BONN — Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev today welcomed U.S. proposals to cut military manpower in Europe and said they could accelerate an East-West agreement on reducing conventional arms.

In prepared remarks from a speech on the first day of a landmark visit to West Germany, Gorbachev gave his first response to a May 29 proposal by President Bush to cut American and Soviet troops in Europe to equal levels.

“There is more reason to believe now that agreement in Vienna may be reached much earlier than previously thought,” Gorbachev said, referring to East-West talks in the Austrian capital on conventional forces.

Gorbachev, who arrived today for his first state visit to West Germany, earlier held talks with Chancellor Helmut Kohl that reportedly focused on arms reductions.

Gorbachev met with Kohl for more than an hour at the chancellor’s office.

A West German government spokesman, Manfred Oblaender, said that the initial round of talks was “more substantial and intense” than expected and that it had been extended. He would not elaborate.

A wedge of motorcycle police led the Soviet leader’s black limousine to the chancellor’s office, and Gorbachev waved from the open car window to a crowd of 100 people, some of whom had stood in the hot afternoon sun for nearly an hour.

The Soviet president came to strengthen ties between East and West, an objective that goes to the heart of this divided nation.