Soviet cash sought

Press, 22 June 1985, Page 10

Soviet cash sought

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The United States Senate voted yesterday to deny the Soviet Union the right to occupy its new embassy in Washington until the Kremlin agreed to pay the United States for construction delays at its new embassy in Moscow. The Soviet Union owed the United States more than SUS2O million ($43.6 million) in damages because of the delays since 1984, said Lawton Chiles, who sponsored the embassy amendment.

Soviet construction delays had increased the cost of the United States Embassy to SUSI 67 million ($364 million) from SUS7S million ($NZ163.5 million) estimated in 1978, he said.

The amendment was approved on a voice-vote to a pending bill that granted

SUS2O.I million > ($43.8 million) extra for the United States Embassy project. The Soviet Union was orginally scheduled to complete building the United States Embassy in 1982, but it is now not expected to be finished until 1987. Construction of both embassies started in 1978.

The United States finished building the Soviet Embassy complex in 1981, but only an apartment block has been occupied.

Under the construction agreement the host country was to build the exterior and each country was to use its own workers to complete the interior. The issue must now be considered in a conference meeting between members of the. Senate and House of Representatives.