MOSCOW : Deadline Approaches

Time runs out Saturday on the Soviet government’s self-imposed deadline to agree on a plan for saving the country’s economy.

The program is expected to be patterned after a crash, 500-day plan already adopted by radical leaders of the vast Russian republic. That scheme calls for a mass selloff of government property, cancellation of state subsidies and eventual removal of almost all price controls.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has cut short his vacation to oversee the finishing touches, but despite what he has called “enormous progress” on it, the final plan must still win approval from national and republican legislatures.