October 5, 1985

Tokyo was rocked Friday night by its most severe earthquake in 62 years, a sudden jolt that halted trains and caused skyscrapers to sway. There were no reported deaths and only a few injuries. Property damage was mild. But even in this city, which is accustomed to seismic rumblings on a regular basis, the earthquake frightened many residents, especially because it closely followed the recent disaster in Mexico.

President Francois Mitterrand, appearing at a news conference with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, today rejected the Soviet leader's proposal for separate arms negotiations with France. On Thursday, Mr. Gorbachev offered a ''separate agreement'' on nuclear arms with France as well as with Britain, saying, ''It is time to start between us a direct dialogue.'' He made the proposal in conjunction with his formal presentation of the Soviet Union's arms offer to the United States. In London, the Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, said any such direct negotiations with Moscow could only follow a strategic arms agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States. An Animated Speaker The quick rejections from France and Britain came as Mr. Gorbachev, appearing with the French leader at Elysee Palace, became the first Soviet leader since Nikita S. Khrushchev 25 years ago to submit himself directly to the massed world press.

Senators critical of a proposal to balance the Federal budget by 1991 blocked a vote on the plan today as members of Congress were torn between its political attraction and its possible flaws, both constitutional and fiscal. Bob Dole, Republican of Kansas, the Senate majority leader, scheduled unusual Saturday and Sunday sessions in the hope of breaking the impasse. The pressure for quick action arises from the fact that the budget-balancing plan is being offered as an amendment to a bill to raise the Government's debt ceiling to more than $2,000 billion. The Treasury Department says the debt will reach its present ceiling of $1,824 billion on Monday, raising the possibility of the Government's delaying payment of some of its bills or benefit checks until more cash comes in.

The Soviet leadership's new arms-control proposals have produced somewhat contradictory responses from the Reagan Administration, which seems pleased to have the proposals but unhappy with much of their content. So far, no single, coherent statement of policy has emerged from the Administration about the highly publicized visit of Mikhail S. Gorbachev to Paris, where he has been trying to generate support in Western Europe for the various Soviet proposals. Although some White House officials expressed concern in the past about ''the public relations war,'' the attitude of officials who were interviewed today seemed fairly relaxed. To some extent the reactions are following familiar lines.

The Soviet Union today evacuated nonessential staff members and families of diplomats from its embassy in Moslem West Beirut. Four embassy men were kidnapped on Monday and one was subsquently murdered, and the professed kidnappers have threatened to destroy the Soviet Embassy if all Russians did not leave the Moslem sector of the city by today. A Soviet Embassy source said the embassy would not be closed.