Poles setting date for reform talk

A meeting of the Polish party Central Committee is to set the date finally for a party congress in July that, in turn, should determine the future course -- and likely limits -- of reform in Poland.

This extraordinary congress -- within a year of the last regular one --was declared urgently necessary when last summer's crisis forced big changes in the leadership, special correspondent Eric Bourne reports. But the congress was delayed until today (April 29) by bitter intraparty squabbling, as the rank and file had demanded a firmly reformist majority in the Politburo.

The Central Committee met March 30, without making any changes, to put on a show of unity at a time that the need to reckon with Soviet opinion was clearly uppermost.

This position is expected to be maintained at today's plenum. Other democratic reforms will be reaffirmed, as will the whole "renewal" process, but without disturbing the Politburo's present membership. It wi ll, however, be enlarged to bring in more reformers.