Soviets woo Chinese for new border talks

The Soviet Union has again called for resumption of border talks with China despite a cool Chinese response to an earlier proposal, Soviet sources said.

Diplomatics sources said the overture reflects Soviet hopes of improving relations with China as a result of tension between Peking and Washington over President Reagan's decision to sell fighter planes to Taiwan.

Despite the Chinese-American strains, few diplomats here believe there is any immediate prospect of a rapprochement between Peking and Moscow, which have been engaged in a bitter war of words since 1960. Moscow made an offer for talks last September. The last round of bargaining in 1978 ended in failure.

China says almost 600,000 square miles of territory are under dispute.