The Big Three Foreign Ministers met May 14 to reopen the discussions on the deadlock over the banning of nuclear weapon tests.

The meeting was at Mr. Herter's residence. Reporters crowded the entrance leading to the villa. American officials arrived, then came Lloyd of Britain. A few minutes later Gromyko arrives.

The talks, outside the work of the East-West Conference on Berlin, lasted 80 minutes. As the Ministers left, they made no statement. The meeting - in private - was to take advantage of Mr. Gromyko's presence in Geneva to try to speed a test agreement.

Negotiations for it have reached a critical stage after six months of hard bargaining. A communique after the meeting at Mr. Herter's residence said they discussed the possibility of technicians of the three countries meeting to consider scientific data, connected with the detection of testing, including high-altitude control. The negotiations resume as planned, June 8 in Geneva.

The A-ban talks came a few hours before the Big Four met for session four on Germany.