Gandhi issues appeals to Iran, Iraq, US, USSR

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi opened the seventh summit meeting of nonaligned nations by appealing to Iran and Iraq to end their 30-month war and urged the Soviet Union and the United States to renounce the use of nuclear weapons.

India's leadership role in the 101-member movement was seen as a turning point from the pro-Soviet stance taken by Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1979. Two leaders attending the summit - King Hussein of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt - made news of their own. They had a two-hour meeting on Middle East topics, an Egyptian official said, the first time an Egyptian president has held discussions with any Arab leader who opposed the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty in 1979.