MOSCOW -- Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called Saturday for a separate arms agreement eliminating medium-range missiles in Europe, dropping his insistence that the United States limit its 'Star Wars' program before such an accord can be signed.
But Gorbachev stressed the Reagan administration must agree to limitations on the Strategic Defense Initiative, the space-based missile defense popularly known as 'Star Wars,' before an accord on long-range missiles can be reached.
'The Soviet Union suggests that the problem of medium-range missiles in Europe be singled out from the package of issues, and that a separate agreement on it be concluded, and without delay,' Gorbachev said in a statement carried by the Tass news agency and read on national television.
'We are putting our proposals on the table of negotiations with the United States in Geneva,' he said.
'There is a real opportunity to free our common European home from a considerable portion of nuclear burden within the shortest possible time,' he said. 'That would be a real and big step toward full deliverance of Europe from nuclear arms.'
Gorbachev said as soon as there is agreement on eliminating medium-range missiles from Europe, the Kremlin will withdraw shorter range missiles installed in Warsaw Pact countries during this decade.
Moscow also is prepared to immediately open negotiations on reducing or eliminating intermediate-range missiles elsewhere in the world, he said.
'We were assured more than once that if the U.S.S.R. singles out the issue of medium-range missiles from the Reykjavik package, there would be no difficulty to agree to their elimination in Europe,' he said. 'A good opportunity is now being offered to prove that in practice,' Gorbachev said.
'As soon as an agreement on eliminating Soviet and U.S. medium-range missiles in Europe is signed, the Soviet Union will withdraw longer-range theater missiles from the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia,' Gorbachev said.
The 'decoupling' of medium-range missiles from SDI, a Soviet concession on its position at the Reykjavik summit between Gorbachev and President Reagan in October, putspressure on Western Europe, which has expressed reservations about eliminating nuclear weapons from the region.
A senior Reagan administration official said the White House had not yet seen the text of Gorbachev's remarks, but added, 'Apparently, the Soviets are removing an obstacle to an INF (intermediate nuclear forces) agreement.'
The official said the United States was surprised at Reykjavik when the Soviets did not agree to separate the medium-range missile issue from other arms control issues, including SDI.
'We had always maintained we should have been able to conclude an agreement on INF separately from the broader issues,' the official said.
White House spokesman Dan Howard reacted cautiously to Gorbachev's proposal, saying, 'Our reaction is that we're prepared to put on the table (in Geneva) an INF treaty draft very quickly, and we hope to make progress. The place to resolve these things is at the negotiating table in Geneva, and we're looking forward to making progress.'
U.S. and Soviet negotiators in Geneva have been discussing nuclear arms proposals since March 1985, but little progress has been made, largely because of the SDI dispute.
The senior administration official said U.S. negotiators will soon propose draft treaty language under which both sides would reduce their medium-range missiles in Europe to zero, allow the Soviets and the United States to each keep 100, and allow the United States to match the current number of Soviet short-range missiles.
An agreement would mean the end of a NATO deployment of 108 Pershing II missiles and 464 cruise missiles in Western Europe to counter mobile Soviet SS-20 missiles. The Soviet Union is reported to have 441 triple-warhead SS-20s in Europe and Asia.
Elimination of nuclear weapons from Europe would leave NATO defenses based solely on conventional arms, where the Soviet Union has a large numerical superiority. NATO deterrence traditionally has been based on the threat of nuclear reprisal.
Some officials, including Secretary of State George Shultz, have questioned the wisdom of eliminating the nuclear deterrent in Western Europe and forcing reliance on conventional forces.
Gorbachev and Reagan agreed at Reykjavik to eliminate medium-range missiles from Europe over a five-year period, keeping only 100 warheads in Soviet Asia and 100 more in the United States. In the same period, the two countries would eliminate 50 percent of their strategic weapons.
The proposed accords foundered on Soviet insistence that the package include limitations on SDI. Gorbachev wanted SDI research confined to laboratory work for 10 years, but Reagan refused.