Acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar met with legislators on Thursday in an effort to smooth over differences with an increasingly bellicose parliament.


Russia's 36-year-old prime minister attempted to downplay the tensions between the executive branch and the legislature, many of whose members have called for the government to resign.


"The situation has been overdramatized", Gaidar said. "There is nothing happening that would necessitate taking any extreme measures".


The meeting was part of a recent government campaign to reach out to its opponents, even as President Boris Yeltsin has taken a new tough line. Last week Gaidar travelled to Togliatti on the Volga River in an effort to reconcile industrial leaders to the government's policies.


Gaidar said that Russia had passed the harshest of economic times, adding that, while he was not looking at events "through rose-colored glasses", the country was enjoying its longest period of democracy.


"The priority is to preserve democratic institutions", he said. "In general, the government considers that its main duty is to continue working calmly".


But Gaidar's optimistic words appeared to have the opposite effect on at least some of his audience, and his last comment brought a collective snort of contempt from the assembled parliamentarians.


Many of them believe that Gaidar's reforms are responsible for the decrepit state of the Russian economy.


"I am almost afraid to ask you a question", retorted one legislator, who did not identify himself. "You are so optimistic, but in the real world it's not like that at all. Industry is on the verge of collapse. How can you say that things are going to get better? "


Industrial production has fallen at a rate of 17. 6 percent for the year, Itar-Tass reported on Thursday. In the last three months, the figure has topped 20 percent. Gaidar said that the fall in production would continue in 1993, but at a lower rate.


"I never said that things would get better in the space of two months", Gaidar said.


This response clearly did not satisfy two legislators from the Change-New Policy fraction, which is aligned with the opposition Civic Union bloc.


"This is a tragedy, the collapse of our economy", one muttered as the two stomped out of the room.