GULF WATCH: Day 38 : Diplomatic Front:

President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will discuss the Middle East situation today at their one-day summit session in Helsinki, but Bush said on his arrival that he does not plan to ask Gorbachev to send ground troops to the region.

On the eve of the summit, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein issued a televised appeal urging Bush and Gorbachev to remember their humanitarian responsibility to avoid provoking war in the region, noting: “Iraq’s army did not invade either of your countries.”

Diplomatic sources in Saudi Arabia said the United States is considering escalating the trade embargo against Iraq into an aerial blockade and will attempt to win Soviet approval of the plan during the summit discussions.

Military Front:

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Pentagon should slow the deployment of American forces to the Middle East and begin a rotation system that would allow troops to return home after a tour of three to five months.

President Bush is planning to visit the American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia sometime within the next three months, according to a report in U.S. News & World Report. The visit might occur over the Thanksgiving holiday, the magazine said.

The latest in desert warfare materiel: An air base in Spokane, Wash., said it is sending to Saudi Arabia hundreds of paperback books, playing cards, checkerboards, backgammon sets, bingo games, softball equipment, volleyballs, footballs, horseshoes and Frisbees.

The Airlifts:

A plane carrying more than 300 Americans who had been trapped in Kuwait was scheduled to arrive today in Charleston, S.C. The U.S. citizens, mainly women and children, were permitted to leave Kuwait in two chartered Iraqi Airlines jets that flew to Amman, Jordan, via Baghdad.

Iraq said it is halting charter flights carrying foreign nationals to Jordan, claiming that the airport in Amman cannot cope with the traffic. Baghdad said the foreigners could be transported to other locations, however, and a U.S. official said an airlift from Baghdad to London is under consideration.

The White House said it will provide more than $10 million to finance an airlift operation to evacuate thousands of refugees currently stranded in Jordan. The United States already has sent $13 million in food aid for the refugees and $5 million for other emergency items.

Crisis Indicators:

* U.S. troops on the ground: 70,000

* U.S. sailors aboard ships in region: 35,000

* U.S. warships in region: 50+

* U.S. reservists to be mobilized: up to 49,703

* Iraqi troops in/near Kuwait: 265,000

* Iraqi tanks in Kuwait: 1,500

* U.S. diplomats remaining in Kuwait: 10

* U.S. diplomats, dependents held in Iraq: 58

* Other Americans detained in Iraq and Kuwait: 90

* Total Americans in Kuwait: about 2,200

* Total Americans in Iraq: about 300

* High temperature in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: 106