Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev paid tribute to President Reagan on Wednesday for retracting his characterization of the Soviet Union as an ``evil empire,'' but he blamed the American side for the failure to make more tangible progress at the fourth superpower summit in 30 months. In the first nationally televised Moscow news conference by a Kremlin leader, Gorbachev hailed the continuing U.S.-Soviet dialogue and said ``it is vitally necessary'' that his meetings resume after Reagan's successor takes office in January. In a good-natured, wide-ranging session with Soviet and foreign reporters, the Communist Party chief held forth for nearly two hours, alternately praising the tone of U.S.-Soviet dialogue while criticizing specific U.S. positions. Gorbachev noted that ``within the walls of the Kremlin, next to the Czar's gun, right in the heart of the evil empire,'' Reagan had responded, ``No,'' when asked if the Soviet Union still deserved the appellation he gave it in March 1983. Reagan explained Tuesday that his characterization, one of the most-quoted of Reagan's presidency, was made in ``another time, another era.'' ``We take note of this,'' Gorbachev said, drawing on an ancient Greek saying to add, ``Everything flows, everything changes.'' Gorbachev said his meetings with Reagan were ``in-depth and at times intense discussions right up to the last minutes.'' He described the talks as respectful and productive, but indicated emotions ran high at times, saying he and Reagan were ``standing up at the table'' to make their points. ``I think that the meetings once again demonstrated the fact that we are indulging in realistic dialogue,'' the 57-year-old Soviet leader said. Gorbachev said he believed a treaty cutting strategic nuclear weapons by 30 percent to 50 percent was still possible this year, despite the failure to break the logjam that has blocked progress toward an agreement since the Washington summit last December. Asked if he expected to meet Reagan again before the president leaves office, Gorbachev said it was unlikely unless there is an unforeseen breakthrough in the strategic arms talks. He said the United States rejected several Soviet proposals for inclusion in a 24-page joint statement issued on conclusion of the talks. Both sides agreed there should be no war between them, yet the Americans objected to describing their goal as ``peaceful coexistence,'' or even ``coexistence,'' Gorbachev said. Gorbachev's remarks were contained in a 50-minute opening statement followed by a question-and-answer session that ran about an hour with questioners picked by Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov from a show of hands of some 300 Soviet and foreign journalists. The general secretary reiterated his criticism of ousted Moscow party boss Boris Yeltsin, a one-time protege, and dismissed Yeltsin's suggestion that the Kremlin's No. 2 man, Yegor Ligachev, should resign. Last October, at a closed meeting of the Communist Party's policy-making Central Committee, Yeltsin criticized the slow pace of perestroika, Gorbachev's campaign to modernize the Soviet economy and society, and offered to resign. Gorbachev said Wednesday that his one-time protege, who had risen to non-voting membership on the ruling Politburo, was overruled by fellow members of the Central Committee. He said he had not seen Yeltsin's recent comments in interviews with Western television networks but would ``demand from Comrade Yeltsin explanations as to what it is all about and what he is after.'' As for Ligachev and reports he was being pushed from power, Gorbachev said ``no such problem exists'' with the man widely perceived as the leader of a conservative faction opposing Gorbachev in the Politburo. ``Perestroika will win out,'' he said of speculation that the reform movement could be in trouble. He also said he had heard no alternative to his reforms and concluded, ``There can be some maneuvers ... but we have undertaken irreversible change.'' Gorbachev, sitting at a table with key members of his summit negotiating team, dominated the session with a self-confident air. Speaking off the cuff much of the time, he made his points gesturing with his hands and flashing a smile. At one point, when he realized that some American correspondents couldn't understand because their translation devices weren't functioning, he directed a good-natured reorganization of the seating, telling Soviet reporters to take chairs where the earphones weren't working. Many reporters, including NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, whom Gorbachev singled out by name, stood up and switched seats in the just-renovated auditorium in the Soviet Foreign Ministry press center. The party chief indicated that the United States and Soviet Union had made a recent breakthrough in long-stalled conventional arms talks in Europe but accused the United States of ``incomprehensible maneuvers'' that scuttled any mention of that in the closing communique. Asked about the prospects for a fifth summit, Gorbachev said, ``I like the possibility for a meeting with just one problem, if we have an opportunity to achieve a treaty concerning offensive arms.'' He said the president's Strategic Defense Initiative was one sure obstacle, along with a dispute over limits on submarine-launched cruise missiles. Later he said he told Reagan the president's view that the so-called Star Wars program is strictly defensive was ``just not serious.'' Asked about the Middle East, Gorbachev said for the first time that as soon as an international conference on the region is convened, ``we are prepared to address ourselves to regularizing relations with Israel,'' severed in 1967. He cited the Afghanistan agreement as an example of what could be achieved if the superpowers worked together with warring parties to solve the conflicts, but noted that if Soviet forces now come under attack from rebels as they withdraw, ``we shall react accordingly and appropriately.'' On human rights, he said that when Reagan ``tried to persuade me to change my mind, I said, `Your explanations are not convincing ... I am not filled with admiration at this aspect of the visit.''' Reagan met with a group of dissidents and refuseniks during his five-day visit here but scrapped a plan to visit a family of would-be Jewish emigrants. Sources said the Soviets warned U.S. officials the family would never be permitted to leave the country if the Reagans followed through with their plan. After talking of what he called the contrary attitude of the United States on some issues, Gorbachev singled out economic relations. ``Authoritative parts of American business circles would like to do business,'' he said. ``They are faced with intimidation and all sorts of restrictions.'' He cited the Jackson-Vanik Amendment which links trade opportunities to emigration freedoms and said he told the president: ``Why should the dead drag on the coattails of the living? ... The amendment was passed in totally different circumstances a decade ago. We should base our policies on present-day realities.'' As he has before, Gorbachev described the agreement to eliminate intermediate range (INF) nuclear weapons as ``a watershed political event in the Soviet-American dialogue.'' Earlier, in remarks at the exchange of final INF papers, the Soviet leader summarized the proceedings as ``big politics ... worthy of new times.'' ``The era of nuclear disarmament has begun,'' Gorbachev said. In his news conference statement, Gorbachev was sharply critical of the U.S. stand on reducing the non-nuclear forces in Europe of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact. He said Reagan had rejected a Soviet proposal to exchange data on the troops as a first step toward a massive reduction, but ``the other side immediately tried to dodge the issue.'' Gorbachev said the United States engaged in ``incomprehensible maneuvers'' and ``we missed a chance to take an important step forward to a civil relationship.''
