Chicago(AP) – Vice President George Bush, sketching the outlines of a foreign policy for the 1990s, said Tuesday he would deploy a space-based missile defense system “as soon as feasible” and would support freedom fighters around the globe.

“It is not a time for timidity, hesitancy and on-the-job training,” he said in a dig at his Democratic presidential opponent, Michael Dukakis. “This new era demands from America, and its elected officials, firm, consistent and experienced leadership.”

Bush extolled what “President Reagan and I” have accomplished since taking office in 1981.

The vice president, who will formally win the Republican presidential nomination two weeks from Wednesday at the party’s national convention, pledged to pursue arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union – but warily. In keeping with his recent slightly skeptical statements about Soviet Gorbachev’s reform drive, he said Russia should be judged by “what it delivers” in arms reductions, human rights, immigration and easing of tensions around the globe.

The vice president delivered his foreign policy speech as chief of staff Craig Filler expressed sastisfaction with Reagan’s decision to permit plant closing legislation to become law without his signature. “I think this makes it more difficultfor the political games to be played over the plant-closing by Democrats in the weeks ahead,” said Fuller.

Dukakis campaigned extensively against an earlier Reagan veto of a trade bill that contained the same provision to require 60 days notice to employees before a plant is closed.

The vice president didn’t mention that issue in his speech, nor did he discuss his search for a vice presidential running mate. On the latter subject, Fuller said only that the list of possible candidates had been narrowed somewhat in recent days.

Bush suggested that development of the administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars,” might be critical to Israel‘s security. In a remark that seemed to open up a new argument for the system as well as challenge Dukakis, he said, “It’s one thing to say you are committed to Israel’s security, but in an age of ballistic missiles, if you are against defensive systems such as SDI, that slogan has little meaning.”

Aids said the vice president was likely to deal more harshly with Dukakis in a second speech, perhaps as early as Thursday in Texas.

Bush intended to use his speech Tuesday to the Mid-America Committee to present a comprehensive outline of his own foreign policy framework, the aid said.

The vice president said Reagan and he have worked successfully to restore American leadership and have “repaired our nation’s defenses, modernized our strategic nuclear forces, deployed intermediate nuclear forces in Europe and restored pride in our nation’s military services.”

As for the future, Bush said he would continue to modernize the American nuclear force “as we pursue a verifiable and stabilizing agreement” for a 50 percent cut in U.S. and Soviet arsenals.