NATO and the Warsaw Pact have also proposed both sides agree to equal ceilings in Europe of 20,000 tanks and 28,000 armored troop carriers.

The Warsaw Pact draft proposed equal limits of 4700 on combat aircraft. NATO earlier proposed a ceiling of 5700.

The bargaining is seen as a key part of the Western alliance's efforts to redefine its role in an era of dramatically reduced tensions.

Officials said Baker outlined his plans for a wider political role for NATO. His plan, unveiled in Berlin on Monday, foresees the alliance as a permanent monitor of the reductions being discussed in Vienna and as a mediator of regional conflicts.

"It finds a positive resonance," said the Canadian official. "Everybody wants the alliance to be functioning well as a political consultative body."

Italy's foreign minister, Giovanni De Michelis, said, "The evolution of Eastern Europe obviously creates the necessity of evolution on the Western side."

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said he supported "the main thrust" of Baker's plan but he also reminded the ministers of NATO's need to keep its "robust defense capability."