Poland says it is now satisfied that a united Germany will make no claims on its territory, and concurrence by the four World War II Allies virtually assures that the two Germanys will be one by year's end.
Foreign ministers from the seven countries decided Tuesday that the Allies will pull out of Berlin and give up other occupational powers held since 1945 once a reunified Germany signs a treaty guaranteeing the current borders."We are very happy with the results," Polish Foreign Minister Krzysztof Skubiszewski told reporters after Tuesday's talks. "The border has been confirmed."
The Polish diplomat's meeting with his counterparts from the two German states and the United States, France, Britain and the Soviet Union came a day after Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev cleared the last great remaining obstacle to German unity by endorsing its membership in the NATO alliance.
In Tuesday's talks, the Germans agreed to give up any claim to territory absorbed by Poland at the end of World War II and to make that commitment part of the new Germany's constitution.
A treaty to be signed by the new Germany and Warsaw shortly after unification will accept the border the Allies set in 1945 between Poland and what later became East Germany.
The Bonn government also agreed on Tuesday to talks with Poland this summer designed to assure Warsaw that its contracts with East Germany will be fulfilled after unification.
The talks could result in German assistance to Poland's shaky economy. Gorbachev ended his public reservations about German reunification after the Bonn government promised financial assistance as well as a limit on the troop strength of the future German military.
"All agree that a unified Germany will consist of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and Berlin - no more, no less," Secretary of State James A. Baker III told a joint news conference held by the foreign ministers after their meeting.
"Today will go down in history as the day in which the Polish border has been settled to the satisfaction of our Polish friends," said Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.
Tuesday's talks were held in an international conference center yards from the Arch of Triumph, the Napoleonic monument under which the troops of Nazi Germany marched in victory 50 years ago last month.
A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "Germany will give up any claim to land now held by Poland and will state it has no territorial claim to any other nation's land."
Poland, which lost 6 million people in World War II, had been concerned that its powerful neighbor once again would start eying Polish territory. About one-third of today's Poland was part of pre-war Germany, awarded to the Poles to compensate for territories annexed by the Soviet Union.
The virtually simultaneous acts of German unification and concluding a border treaty with Poland will be followed by full German sovereignty, with the Americans, Soviets, British and French giving up all occupational powers.
Another result of the successful third round of the "two-plus-four" talks, to which Poland was added on the issue of its borders, is the increased likelihood of a 35-nation summit in Paris in November. However, the United States has insisted on completion of a treaty beforehand to reduce U.S. and Soviet troops, tanks and other non-nuclear weapons in Europe.
Those talks are being held in Vienna between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
On Monday, in the Soviet region of Stavropol, Gorbachev and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany agreed that the army of a united Germany would be limited to 370,000 troops. The two Germanys now have about 600,000 men under arms, with 480,000 in West Germany.
The Soviet Union and West Germany also agreed to begin negotiations on the full withdrawal of Soviet soldiers from what is now East German territory. The 380,000 soldiers should be pulled out in three to four years.
West Germany - the richest nation in Europe - is expected to increase trade with Moscow.
All-German elections are scheduled for Dec. 2.