Daniloff's Daughter Overjoyed

CHICAGO--The daughter of American reporter Nicholas Daniloff said yesterday that while she opposed in principle exchanging an alleged Soviet spy to win her father's freedom, she favored any measures that proved successful.

"On one hand, we had express wishes that he did not want to be swapped for a spy because he is not a spy and therefore the two persons are not equivalent," said Miranda Daniloff, 23, a Chicago-based theater actress.

"But, I'm obviously not an objective party here," she said, adding she was not aware of any such deal.

Ms. Daniloff made her remarks just moments after her father was released by the Soviet Union today, nearly one month after his arrest on espionage charges.

Daniloff, 51, longtime Moscow correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, was freed after long hours of negotiations between U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in New York.

U.S. officials contended he was arrested in retaliation for the arrest of a Gennadiy Zakharov, a Soviet U.N. employee, on espionage charges in New York. The Soviets denied a link between the cases and insisted that Zakharov was framed by the FBI.

Asked whether she had any knowledge about the negotiations, Ms. Daniloff replied, "They (State Department officials) have not told me any details about any deals.

"All I know is that intense negotiations were going on and there was a need for secrecy."