USSR hints it would talk of mid-range-missile pact

A senior Kremlin foreign policy adviser was quoted as saying that Moscow is ready to discuss formally a controversial Soviet-US compromise on medium-range nuclear weapons.

The Hamburg-based Deutsches Allgemeines Sonntagsblatt quoted Genrik Trofimenko, head of the foreign relations department of the influential Soviet Institute for the United States and Canada.

Mr. Trofimenko spoke of the ''walk-in-the-woods formula,'' which was an informal compromise worked out by the chief Soviet and US negotiators last year but rejected by both Washington and Moscow. Under the plan, NATO would drastically cut its threatened deployment of low-speed cruise missile launchers in Europe to 75. In return Moscow would cut its 350-strong arsenal of triple-warheaded SS-20 missiles to the same level.