The Soviet Union is holding talks on...

The Soviet Union is holding talks on participating in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and is expected to announce it will field its athletes in the games, a newspaper in Seoul reported.

The Korea Times quoted Kim Un-yong, the South Korean member of the International Olympic Committee, as confirming that the Soviet Union is planning to send a team.

Vjatschelav Gavrilin, vice president of the Soviet National Olympic Committee, met last Monday in Seoul with Park Seh-jik, president of the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee, in the strongest sign yet that Moscow would enter the games, beginning Sept. 17.

Invitations to take part in the games must be accepted by Jan. 17.

East Germany and Hungary are the only Soviet bloc nations that have announced that they will participate in the games.

Soviet participation in the games would mean that Soviet and U.S. athletes would face each other in Olympic competition for the first time in 12 years.