World Notes FRANCE

The major Western powers, which have long hustled to sell their arms to the world, are now competing to peddle their visions for weapons control. French President Francois Mitterrand last week moved to upstage President Bush's recent proposal for containing the Middle East arms race with a plan covering the whole globe.

The French initiative calls for the elimination of chemical weapons, a ban ) on production of biological arms and the reduction of nuclear arsenals. As for conventional weaponry, the plan aims to establish "a balance of forces" in each region of the world, and endorses a British proposal that arms exporters register their sales with the U.N. So as not to appear hypocritical, the French announced that they would finally sign the 1968 nuclear nonproliferation treaty. The pact prohibits nuclear powers from exporting the weapons or the technology for building them and restricts nonnuclear powers from acquiring either.

Officially, the Bush Administration welcomed the French action, though a Pentagon official said, "This is about what you'd expect from the French: too little, too late." Representatives of the top arms-exporting nations are scheduled to meet in Paris next month to discuss the U.S., British and French proposals.