European nuke foes to tour US

An 11-member delegation from peace groups that sponsored mass disarmament rallies in Western Europe last fall arrived in the United States for a two-week speaking tour, reports Monitor contributor Tracy Early.

The ''US-Europeace tour'' is intended to forge ''stronger links'' between the US and European disarmament movements - and to build momentum for a mass rally to be held in New York June 12, in connnection with the UN disarmament session, a spokesman said.

The visit is being co-sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee and Clergy and Laity Concerned.

In a press conference at the UN, a representative of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament read a delegation statement endorsing the nuclear-arms freeze proposed March 10 by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and other members of Congress.

The statement expressed impatience with the pace of US-Soviet arms control efforts. ''We cannot any longer wait passively for the results of such bilateral negotiations and have started to call on our own governments to take independent steps to reduce and remove nuclear weapons,'' the European delegation said.