Other speakers worried out loud aboutGorbachev's political standing. Y.A. Gankovsky, aSiberian party secretary, suggested Gorbachev'sposition was weakened because he had taken on toomany jobs.

"While you, Mikhail Sergeyevich, were only the[party] general secretary--absolutely withoutflattery I will say--we felt that new ideas wereborn in the party, that some kind of reformationwork was under way to break up the outlived andoutdated. Now you have four posts. One gets theimpression that someone wants the general not tobe successful at any of them, scattering powers,"Gankovsky said.

In addition to being party general secretary,Gorbachev is president, chairperson of the DefenseCouncil and a Politburo member.

Politburo member Yegor K. Ligachev, widelyidentified as its leading conservative, receivedwarm applause for a speech criticizing failings inperestroika, Gorbachev's reform program, theCentral Committee source said.

"After somewhat of an enlivening in the firsttwo years of perestroika, the economy began todecline, interethnic feuds reached bloodshed,people began to experience fear, and in someplaces there is practically dual power," Ligachevsaid in remarks reported by Tass.

He said the Politburo, led by Gorbachev, andthe government committed "serious oversights andmistakes." He cited monetary problems thatworsened consumer goods shortages, a lack ofsupervision of new economic forms and a "weaknessof government discipline."

"The gap between the word and deed isintolerable," he continued.

On political reform, Ligachev demanded theplatform include a clause emphasizing thesacredness of party unity, and he said he firmlyopposes allowing private property, a demand ofradical reformers.

Ligachev, 69, has generally taken a cautiousapproach to reforming the country and last weekcame under attack in a Soviet newspaper for hisconservative views. But in his speech yesterday,he said he wants reform quickly, denied he was aconservative, and said people who call him one aretrying to divert the people's attention