Little progress made in settling US-Soviet space defense programs

The Soviets have made public their latest proposals for limits on the numbers of long-range nuclear weapons. The total number of strategic nuclear warheads - 5,600 to 6,200 - is close to the total proposed by the United States. But the limits on each category of missiles - land, sea, and air-launched - amount to a mix that is unacceptable to the US, according to American officials.

One American negotiator says the Soviet proposal ``stands our proposal on its head'' by proposing that a majority of each sides' weapons be heavy, land-based intercontinental missiles - 3,000 to 3,300 of the total warhead count.

The US position is that such heavy missiles are the most threatening and destablizing weapons in the superpower arsenals, and need to form a lower proportion of each side's total nuclear forces.

While US officials see the ``mix'' of warheads as negotiable, they admit there was relatively little progress in clearing up disagreements on space defense programs and the ABM Treaty.