President Brezhnev says he'll visit Nicaragua

Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev accepted an invitation to visit Nicaragua on an unspecified date.

Monitor Latin America correspondent James Nelson Goodsell writes the announcement, in a joint communique issued at the end of a Moscow visit by Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega Saavedra, is a significant Soviet challenge to the United States' Central American policy, and suggests Nicaragua is moving more into the Soviet and Cuban orbit.

Since no date for the visit was given, however, the announcement probably is more of a Soviet and Nicaraguan ploy to sound out US reactions than a sure thing , particularly in light of recent concern about Mr. Brezhnev's health.

[Earlier in the weekend, Nicaragua responded to an eight-point negotiation proposal submitted by the United States in April, offering to discuss the Reagan administration's charge that the Sandinista government has supplied arms to Salvadoran guerrillas, the Washington Post reported.

[But Nicaraguan Ambassador Francisco Fiallos Navarro, in a note to the State Department, did not concede nor flatly deny that his country has provided material assistance to the guerrillas. The carefully worded response seemed to leave open the possibility that Nicaragua would end alleged arms trafficking to El Salvador, the Post said.]