Charges fly on arms control

The United States will continue to abide by the unratified SALT II nuclear arms treaty after it expires Dec. 31, the White House announced Monday. The treaty puts limits on long-range bombers, missile-firing submarines, and land-based missiles.

The decision to continue to abide by the terms of the treaty comes as the adminstration also was to formally report to Congress on Soviet treaty violations. An unclassified digest of the report, released to some news organizations on Saturday, repeated or modified charges leveled in previous compliance reports. It also added a new charge that, in effect, the Soviets have been making it harder to verify which launchers are used for which missiles, in violation of SALT II. The Soviet news agency Tass desc ribed the allegations as ``a fresh propaganda fraud.''

In addition, the Soviets on Monday accused the US of secretly working on ways to breach an antiballistic missile shield. The Soviet armed forces spokesman, Col.-Gen. Nikolai Chervov, cited US press reports that the Pentagon was developing fast-flying, low-altitude cruise missiles capable of evading enemy beam weapons, among other technologies.