WASHINGTON (AP) — The United
States and the Soviet Union Thursday
signed an agreement of principles de-
signed to permanently limit nuclear
weapons by the end of 1974.

President Nixon and Communist leader
Leonid I. Brezhnev signed for their
nations at the White House. The
agreement, the outstanding accom-
plishment of their summit talks, was
cemented at the President's Camp David
retreat in the Maryland mountains.

The two nations agreed as a matter of
principle that efforts by one or the other
to obtain a nuclear advantage would be
inconsistent with the goal of
strengthening peaceful relations.

The agreement is designed to spur
negotiators for both countries at now-
recessed talks in Geneva. Significantly,
the arms limitation envisioned by the end
of next year would include not only
numbers but the quality of the missiles
themselves.

Nixon and Brezhnev also agreed that
limitation on strategic offensive arms
must be subject to ‘‘adequate veri-
fication.’’ Both nations would be per-
mitted to modernize and replace weapons
only under conditions to be agreed upon
at Geneva.

At the same time, Nixon and Brezhnev
signed a 10-year pact to expand
 cooperation between the two countries on
peaceful uses of atomic energy. It suc-
ceeds a series of two-year agreements.

The major points of the compact in-
clude: (1) controlling thermonuclear
fusion; (2) research on “fast breeder’
reactors which create more fuel than
they consume; (3) research on the fun-
damental properties of physicai matter.
 
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
United States and the Soviet
Union Thursday signed an
agreement in principle to limit
and possibly reduce their stock-
piles of offensive nuclear weap-
ons by the end of 1974.

President Nixon and Soviet
Communist leader Leonid I.
Brezhnev raised their cham-
pagne glasses in toasts to suc-
cess at the ceremony in the
White House East Room.

The agreement, the out-
standing acomplishment of
their week-long summit, was
forged by Nixon and Brezhnev
earlier at Camp David, the
presidential retreat in the
 mountains of Maryland. It is
designed to spur negotiators for
the two countries at the re-
cessed strategic arms limita-
tion talks (SALT) in Geneva.

For the first time, the two
nations committed themselves
in principle to actual reductions
of their nuclear weaponry as
well as to permanent limita-
tions. Also significantly, the
United States evidently is bow-
ing to Soviet objections to on-
site inspections.

One of the seven stated prin-
ciples provides that “national
technical means” be the svs-
tem of verifying whether Wash-
ington and Moscow were living
up to a missile limitation.

 
 