EC Ministers OK $2.4 Billion for Soviet Aid : Emergency: European finance chiefs call for matching North American, Japanese contributions.

European Community finance ministers Monday approved about $2.4 billion in emergency food and medical aid to the Soviet Union, an amount that falls short of what Soviet officials say they will need to make it through the winter.

The finance ministers, whose action still needs final approval by the 12 EC governments, called for equal contributions from North America and from Japan.

That would produce a total aid package of $7.2 billion, compared with the $10.2 billion that Soviet officials have identified as the bare minimum to avert shortages of food and medicine.

A U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman said there will be no immediate comment on whether the United States, with Canada’s help, would be willing to match the EC sum.

EC President Jacques Delors, meeting with the 12 finance ministers in Luxembourg, said a delegation from the EC and the seven largest industrial countries would visit the Soviet Union soon to explore how best to apportion the aid between the central government and the 12 Soviet republics, nine of which have already declared their independence. The delegation “will have a lot of questions to ask about the economic and financial situation of the Soviet Union,” Delors said.

About a month ago, the Soviets stunned Western officials by asking for $14.7 billion in aid. They said the disintegration of central authority after the failed August coup against President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had left the country’s economy a shambles and its unreliable distribution system unable to transport critical goods.

Last week, in a visit to Moscow by the EC economic affairs commissioner, Henning Christophersen, the Soviets scaled their request back to $10.2 billion. Christophersen said Gorbachev had told him that this sum would maintain per capita food consumption at last year’s level.

At Monday’s meeting in Luxembourg, Dutch Finance Minister Wim Kok said the EC will ask the United States and Canada for a total of $2.4 billion and Japan for $2.4 billion more.

Kok said the EC’s $2.4 billion will include $900 million that the community set aside last December in the event of urgent Soviet need. One-third of that sum was in the form of grants and two-thirds in loans and loan guarantees.

The additional $1.5 billion would represent new extensions of credit from the EC. “The release of funds from this contingency credit facility will depend on a demonstration of need and will be subject to procedures for adequate distribution and control,” Kok said.

Delors said the Soviets could use half of the $1.5 billion to buy agricultural goods from the EC and half from Eastern European countries. Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary have protested that the EC has closed its agricultural markets to their farmers; the EC hopes to defuse this issue.