World Notes EAST-WEST

For East Germany's normally stolid Neues Deutschland, it was a rare scoop. The Communist Party daily reported last week that Soviet troops were preparing to dismantle the first of 54 SS-12 nuclear missiles in East Germany that are scheduled to be scrapped under the U.S.-Soviet intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty. The move came as the accord continued to meet stiff opposition during a U.S. Senate debate over its ratification.

Western analysts viewed the Soviet steps as a propaganda gesture designed to encourage Senate passage of the treaty and to win over nervous West Europeans. Sure enough, West Germany's opposition Social Democrats urged Chancellor Helmut Kohl to respond by starting to remove the 72 Pershing 1A missiles that Bonn and Washington jointly control on West German soil. But NATO officials insist that no Western missiles be scrapped until the Senate ratifies the INF accord.