GORBACHEV PROMISES STRONGER STEPS ON ECONOMY

In a televised address Saturday night, his first appearance after a one-month vacation, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised ``extraordinary measures'' to handle the country's economic crisis, warned that further strikes would only make things worse, and rejected calls to either slow down reform or abandon socialism. In what appeared to be a veiled dig at de facto opposition leader Boris Yeltsin, Mr. Gorbachev emphasized that the core of perestroika (restructuring) was more work, not the ``redistribution of benefits.'' Mr. Yeltsin has made the elimination of privileges for the ruling elite a central part of his program.

Gorbachev's speech coincided with the announcement that the Communist Party Politburo had censured two senior officials for failing to improve the consumer goods situation and recommended the dismissal of a third. One of the censured officials is a deputy prime minister and Central Committee member, Vladimir Gusev.