SOVIET TOURS US TO URGE NUCLEAR TEST BAN

A Soviet lawmaker and anti-nuclear leader began a tour of the United States Wednesday to urge Americans to demand an end of nuclear testing in the Nevada desert in a campaign similar to efforts to stop such tests in the Soviet Union. In 1989, Olzhas Suleimenov, a member of the Soviet Congress of Peoples' Deputies, led a grass-roots effort in his native Kazakhstan that helped block 11 of 18 scheduled tests at at the Semipalatinsk site in the USSR.

Mr. Suleimenov said the majority of nations, including the Soviet Union, favor a comprehensive test ban. He said Iraq has indicated it will abide by a nuclear weapons research ban if world powers agree.

Suleimenov said in recent discussions with Soviet President Gorbachev, the Soviet leader indicated, ``If we ourselves have not halted production of nuclear weapons, what moral right do we have to ban others?''