World Notes EAST-WEST

In its quest for a ban on all nuclear testing, the Soviet Union publicly unveiled a novel proposal last week. Speaking in Washington, Colonel General Nikolai Chervov, one of Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev's closest arms-control advisers, invited the U.S. to explode an atom bomb at a Soviet nuclear test site. Purpose: to enable Washington to fine-tune its monitoring equipment and thus ensure that any treaty violation could be detected. Chervov added that the Soviets should then be allowed to detonate a bomb at a U.S. test site.

After noting that Soviet negotiators privately proposed the idea during July talks on nuclear testing in Geneva, White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater warily responded, "We don't really know the specifics of what the proposal means." But the Administration continues to reject a total test ban, which would hamper its plans to upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal.