Reform Stalling Angers Gorbachev : Soviet Union: He tells lawmakers time has run out and they must decide on an economic rescue plan.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev lost patience with the national legislature today, angrily telling lawmakers that they had debated long enough and that the time had come to approve an economic rescue plan.

But the Supreme Soviet failed to muster a quorum and adjourned until Monday without a vote.

Pounding his palm on a wooden lectern, Gorbachev expressed exasperation with people “who think we have lots of time and we can still talk, think, try and experiment” before adopting a plan to move toward a market economy.

“We don’t have that time,” he said.

Gorbachev’s speech followed a week of tumultuous debate in the legislature over three competing reform proposals: economist Stanislav Shatalin’s radical plan to establish a free market in 500 days, Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov’s conservative plan to retain government control over most of the economy, and Gorbachev’s compromise plan to break up some government monopolies and encourage free enterprise to grow at a moderate pace.

Before Gorbachev spoke, Ryzhkov had suggested that the Supreme Soviet refer all three plans to a committee for further work and unification into a single, detailed blueprint.

Without criticizing Ryzhkov by name, Gorbachev clearly disagreed with the prime minister’s suggestion.

“You could hold 30 more sessions of the Supreme Soviet,” he told the legislature, “and all the same you still would not be able to work out every detail and answer every question. The answers will come from experience.”

Gorbachev acknowledged that “no plan can be considered final” and that adjustments could still be made and details worked out.

But he said his compromise plan was crafted from all the major proposals, and he urged the lawmakers to show the Soviet people that they were taking decisive action to revive the economy, plagued by shortages of consumer goods and housing.

“We must move and act,” he said. “Don’t wait.”