The Kremlin clearly hopes President Bush, in an early December meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, will be open to agreement on steps that would help give the battered Soviet economy a badly needed boost.

Although Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze bristled as he denied U.S. reports the meeting would develop an aid plan for the Soviet economy, there was little doubt that cooperation was on the minds of Soviet officials."When they say, `To help or assist the Soviet Union,' it touches our national dignity because we have everything to implement the plans of perestroika and to lead the cause we started to the end," Shevardnadze said.

But "equal and mutually beneficial cooperation" was another matter, he said. "Cooperation, a favorable general situation in the external world would of course help us realize our plans."

In a decision driven by geography and geopolitics, President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev will hold their summit at sea next month on navy cruisers off the Miedterranean island nation of Malta.

Slightly more than 27 hours after Tuesday's surprise announcement that Bush and Gorbachev would meet months earlier than expected, non-aligned Malta, with historical ties to both East and West, was chosen for the Dec. 2-3 talks.

A White House aide said Bush most likely will fly into the capital of Valletta and meet with Maltese Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami before flying by helicopter to a U.S. 6th Fleet cruiser for the two-day summit.

Gorbachev, who will just have wrapped up a visit to Italy, is expected to make a similar stop on the island, considered neutral ground for the minimum-expectation "non-summit summit," out of diplomatic courtesy.

News of the summit comes as Soviet shoppers struggle to find groceries to put on the table.

Soviet legislators on Tuesday approved an "emergency" budget designed to cut in half this year's $193 billion deficit by reducing military spending and capital outlays.

Unemployment is up to 27 percent in some places, with millions of people being thrown out of work by efforts to restructure the state-run economy, the Communist Party daily newspaper Pravda reported.

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A spasm of strikes has cut the stockpile of coal for heating and electricity as winter approaches, and the official media abounds in reports of mismanagement that has left vital goods sitting undelivered.

The tough economic situation has contributed to a dark mood among many Soviets, and there has been open talk about the possibility of civil war, revolution or a military coup.

A meeting with Bush right after his scheduled visit to Italy emphasizes Gorbachev's successes in foreign policy, where he has accomplished much more than in his efforts to rebuild his own country.

Gorbachev has said the defense budget will be cut by $16.1 billion by the end of 1991, and he and other top Soviet officials have said lower defense expenditures would allow the country to turn more attention to its ailing economy. As the Soviet Union retires missiles, tanks and other weapons, it has turned some of the factories that produce them over to domestic production.

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