About 200 Soviet and 300 American officials and private citizens met in Tbilisi, the capital of Soviet Georgia, for a six-day conference co-sponsored by the state-sanctioned U.S.-Soviet

Friendship Society and the Chautauqua Institution of New York. Three previous conferences have served as a barometer of U.S.-Soviet relations. Thirteen months ago in Chautauqua, N.Y., the

Soviet delegation trumpeted the merits of the Kremlin drive for _ glasnost_ , or openness. MORE TO READ