OMAHA, Neb. —(AP)— U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said Thursday there is no place to single out U.S. agricultural products when it comes to foreign trade embargoes.

He joined other farm-state senators in introducing legislation that would restrict the president's ability to single out ag products when foreign embargoes are imposed.

Hagel said American farmers and ranchers should not be victims in U.S. disputes with other nations. He said U.S. producers suffered devastating effects during the 1976 Soviet grain embargo, and he believes in many ways the country still feels the impact of that.

He said the Soviet embargo cost the United States $2.3 billion in lost farm exports and U.S. Department of Agriculture compensation to farmers.

When the United States cut off grain sales to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Hagel noted, France, Canada, Australia and Argentina stepped in to claim that market. Hagel said former Soviet states have been timid buyers of U.S. farm products since then.

The measure Hagel sponsored with Sens. John Ashcroft of Missouri and Tom Harkin of Iowa would exempt food and medicine from unilateral sanctions impose by the United States.