East European leaders converged on the Hungarian capital Budapest yesterday (17 March) for the Hungarian Communist Congress, along with behind-the-scenes talks with Soviet Party leader Leonid Brezhnev, making his first foreign visit since a mysterious seven-week period of seclusion earlier this year.

The 800 delegates gave the Soviet leader a standing ovation when he arrived for the opening session of the Congress yesterday.

In a later speech to the assembly, he called for ceaseless efforts to maintain the pace of detente. In particular he proposed a swift final summit in the long-drawn-out European Security Conference, to lay solid foundations for peace on that continent.

The summit was also mentioned by Hungarian Communist leader Janos Kadar in his speech during the opening session. He called for a flexible approach to enable the security summit to take place soon.

During his speech, Mr. Kadar -- Hungary's leader for 18 years -- hit out at the Chinese, saying that they had resisted all efforts to develop inter-state relations.