Leading Lithuanian lawmakers Friday discussed a threat by Mikhail S. Gorbachev to impose presidential rule on the Baltic republic unless they shelve their independence declaration, a Lithuanian spokesman said.
In a meeting Thursday with four Lithuanian legislators, the Soviet president also was quoted as saying he would lift a crippling embargo and reimburse the republic for resulting losses if the 2-month-old declaration of independence were suspended.Friday in Vilnius, the presidium of Lithuania's Supreme Council legislature met in executive session to hear "a report on the meeting with Gorbachev," said a spokesman for the parliament's information center.
Lithuania's fuel crisis caused by the embargo has deepened this week. Officials in the republic have said that as of Friday only emergency vehicles can tank up.
Also Thursday, Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov rejected Lithuania's latest compromise offer to suspend some laws promoting a break with Moscow without freezing its March 11 independence declaration.
Gorbachev's meeting with the Lithuanian lawmakers came one week before the Soviet leader heads for Washington for a summit with President Bush, who has urged a dialogue between Moscow and Lithuania.
During the meeting, Gorbachev offered to lift an embargo of oil and other raw materials if Lithuania agrees to suspend its independence declaration, said Vaidotas Antanaitis, an observer member of the national legislature.
The Soviet leader said Lithuania could win independence in two years if it follows Kremlin procedure, Antanaitis said.
Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian leaders have said they are willing to compromise but will not surrender their goal of seceding from the Soviet Union, which forcibly annexed the three Baltic republics in 1940.