exterior views of Ambasciatori hotel where meeting taking place, interiors: two American officers talking in the hall of hotel, secretary general of NATO, Mr. Luns outside the hotel, British delegation (unfortunately not Minister Mulley) getting into car, heavy police security.




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The Nuclear Planning group (NPG), the most secretive Nato organization met in the Southern Italian city of Bari to discuss whether President carter should order production of the lethal neutron bomb and whether the USA should deploy its cruise missiles to Western Europe.

At the end of the two day meeting defense ministers of Italy, Britain, West Germany and the USA, permanent members of NPG and Greece, Denmark and Belgium, current rotating members decided to put off any decisions until next year. They said that public opinion in the Western countries would be negatively affected by a favourable decision to deploy the bomb in Nato countries at this point. Furthermore, some West European countries, especially Germany, are still not convinced of the utility of the Bomb. Yesterday, American defense secretary, Harold Brown said that the Americans would not force their Nato allies to accept something which they do not want. In fact, President Carter's opinion is that before beginning construction of the bomb, the USA should have Nato's approval.