WASHINGTON--Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze reported progress yesterday toward an arms control accord that could be signed at the next super-power summit meeting.

Shultz said there was "some progress" in talks between U.S. and Soviet experts, while Shevardnadze declared: "I think we are now discussing all these questions more constructively than previously."

They met for nearly five hours over the day, ranging over Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Iran-Iraq war, human rights and other issues before Shultz hosted a dinner for the Soviet visitor at the State Department.

"This is a step forward," Shevardnadze said in describing their talks on nuclear weapons. He said he was "looking with optimism" upon prospects for a summit meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

In Moscow, meanwhile, the official news agency Tass reported quoted Gorbachev as saying that a treaty eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles could still be worked out this year by the superpowers, and an accord to cut strategic weapons was possible early next year.

Gorbachev said a treaty eliminating U.S. and Soviet medium and shorter-range nuclear missiles is "possible and realistic."

"The Soviet Union is proceeding from the premise that a relevant treaty could be worked out before the end of the current year," he said.

Gorbachev made the upbeat statement in an article published in conjunction with the opening of the 42nd session of the United Nations. It was released shortly after midnight yesterday as Shultz and Shevardnadze met to work out the details of an arms treaty.

Cautiously, however, Shevardnadze also told reporters "there are some points we have to work on a little more" before a treaty to ban U.S. and Soviet intermediate-range missiles is nailed down.

"It is, for the time being, difficult to speak about results," he said. "We are engaged in a very serious, profound, businesslike discussion of very urgent issues."

But, he went on, "as I said yesterday, it is proceeding in a very good, working, businesslike atmosphere."

The talks are expected to wind up sometime after noon on Thursday. Shultz will then hold a news conference at the State Department. Shevardnadze scheduled a 4:30 p.m. session at the Soviet embassy.

Two of Shultz's key goals are to narrow differences in the way of a treaty to scrap U.S. and Soviet medium-range missiles so it can be signed this year at a superpower summit and persuading the Soviets to adopt a short timetable for withdrawing 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.

A third U.S. goal during Shevardnadze's visit is to spur a revamping of Soviet emigration procedures. A mixed team of U.S. and Soviet human rights specialists opened talks while Shultz and Shevardnadze held an 80-minute morning session at the State Department.

Charles E. Redman, the State Department spokesman, declined to say if any of these goals were met. "At this point in the meeting I'm not going into those kinds of questions," he said.

On Afghanistan, however, Redman reiterated that the United States wants a Soviet withdrawal and "a process of reconciliation." That would involve replacing the pro-Moscow government in Kabul with a coalition including the Afghan guerrillas at war with the Red Army.

Shevardnadze, alluding to U.S. support for the guerrillas, said the key issue for the Soviets was "having assurance against interference in internal affairs" in Afghanistan.

In principle, Gorbachev is committed to a troop withdrawal but U.N.-supervised negotiations have not produced a timetable.

President Reagan, meanwhile, struck a critical stance in a speech to a public relations group that met at the department.

"Our country has its shortcomings," he said. "But there's no moral equivalency between democracy and totalitarianism. There's no moral equivalency before turning the proud nations of Eastern Europe into satellites and joining the nations of Western Europe on the defense of their freedom."