News In Brief

Disarmament group urges freeze on deployments

The Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues, a panel which includes Soviet and American experts, urged the two superpowers Sunday to freeze deployment of nuclear weapons for one year.

Olof Palme, Swedish prime minister and chairman of the group, described the suggestion as ''remarkable, at a time when international negotiations are breaking down.''

Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath blocked an attempt to issue the proposal as a joint conclusion of Palme's group and a commission chaired by former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt.

''The Palme commission was playing entirely into Soviet hands,'' Heath said. Heath told reporters later that Georgi Arbatov, a member of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee, had originally proposed a freeze on research, production, and deployment of all nuclear weapons for one year.