Reagan warns of N-setback

Press, 18 February 1983, Page 8

Reagan warns of N-setback

NZPA-Reuter Washington

President Ronald Reagan said yesterday that his nuclear strategy would receive a terrible setback if West Germans next month elected a Government opposed to the planned deployment of United States medium-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe. Mr Reagan, who stood firm on his "zero-option" negotiating position in European missile talks with the Soviet Union, hastily added at a news conference that he was not interfering in another country's internal affairs.

He was confident that West Germany and other allies would " support his nuclear policy and believed that the planned deployment of 572 Pershing II and cruise missiles in Western Europe would not affect the outcome of the election. The German election and the European missile talks were the main foreign issues at the news conference, at which Mr Reagan was also questioned about reports that

Libya was moving troops towards its border with Sudan.

Mr Reagan's remarks about the European missile talks with Moscow came as Senate opposition grew against his choice of Kenneth Adelman as Arms Control Director.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee views Mr Adelman as a hardliner opposed to genuine arms control. and several members urged Mr Reagan to withdraw the nomination. He had refused.

In standing firm, Mr Reagan set himself firmly, at least for the present, against suggestions from West European leaders that he should offer a compromise. Shortly after Mr Reagan spoke, the British Foreign Secretary. Mr Francis Pym. in a speech in Houston, Texas, called for a change in the “zero-option." An identical suggestion was made by the West German Economics Minister. Dr Otto Count Lambsdorff, in a speech in Washington earlier this week.