Improving the 'hot line': US team meets Soviets

A US government delegation held talks with Soviet officials on ways of improving the so-called ''hot line'' used to link the White House and the Kremlin in times of extreme emergency.

The present link between Washington and Moscow is not, as commonly supposed, a telephone, but rather a telex line, kept continuously open between the capitals. One of the ways President Reagan has suggested to improve communications was the installation of facsimile machines, which could transmit copies of vital documents. A spokesman for the US Embassy said he had been specifically told to give minimal details about the talks.