Soviets Give U.S. Detailed Shopping List : Economy: No details are revealed of request by Gorbachev to Agriculture Secretary Madigan.

With food lines lengthening in major Soviet cities and winter fast approaching, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev formally presented a detailed request to the United States for emergency food assistance in a Kremlin meeting Wednesday with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward R. Madigan.

The details of Gorbachev’s request were not disclosed, but U.S. officials said it includes specific dollar figures and tonnage amounts for each type of food the Soviets want from the West. Earlier, Soviet officials had indicated that they want a total of $10.5 billion in Western assistance.

Although he refused to say how much aid the United States will give, Madigan stressed that the Administration is committed to providing an emergency food package that will go well beyond the $1.5 billion in loan guarantees and credits for Soviet purchases of U.S. grain that has already been announced.

Madigan also made it clear that the United States plans to funnel most of its food assistance through Gorbachev and the central government. The goal is to avoid the political and logistic headaches that might result from trying to parcel it out to individual republics in the splintering Soviet Union.

“When we begin to talk about the shipment of bulk food commodities, it is very difficult to talk about doing that with individual republics, when you have to ship it through ports and across other regions,” Madigan said. “It would be much easier to deal with the center.”

Dealing with the center will also cut confusion. Madigan--who is completing a nine-day visit to assess Soviet food needs for President Bush--complained after meetings with regional officials in the Russian Federation and the Ukraine this week that he was constantly given conflicting data on local conditions and food needs.

Gorbachev’s meeting with Madigan followed public pledges of food assistance by the European Community and Japan. On Monday, the EC offered $1.5 billion in new aid for food and medicine, and Japanese officials said Tuesday that they will give $2.5 billion in food-related assistance.

Officials from the United States and the other leading industrial powers plan to meet this weekend to coordinate Soviet aid and to discuss how it can be delivered without getting lost in the chaotic Soviet distribution system.

Madigan still insisted Wednesday that he does not believe the Soviets face the threat of a winter famine this year.

Although the nation’s distribution system is on the verge of collapse, Madigan said his visits to Soviet farms and processing and distribution facilities in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the food-rich Ukraine convinced him that the winter will bring severe shortages but not the kind of widespread hunger predicted by many.

In addition to the emergency assistance for the winter, the Bush Administration is also proposing a dramatic expansion in U.S. technical assistance programs for the Soviet farming sector. The Administration hopes to send Peace Corps volunteers into rural areas, for example, and may also propose new exchange programs to bring more Soviet farmers and agricultural experts to the United States.

During their meeting Wednesday, Madigan and Gorbachev tentatively agreed on two more novel exchange projects.

Madigan said the United States has proposed creating a working model American farm outside St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad. U.S. Agriculture Department officials have begun negotiations on the project with the reformist municipal government of St. Petersburg and hope to staff the operation with U.S. agricultural experts and at least one American farmer.

Gorbachev also gave his support to a Madigan plan to have teams of American business executives run a wide array of Soviet food-processing and distribution plants for at least a few months.