TOGLIATTI, Russia - Acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar made no attempt to hide his enthusiasm as he toured the design room of the Volga Autoworks, Russia's largest auto manufacturer.


Here was Daniel in the lion's den, the whiz-kid economist and architect of Russia's market reforms in the lap of the very industrialists who have accused him of ignoring their concerns.


And he was loving every minute of it.


"Wow, this is great", Gaidar said, a boyish smile creasing his broad face as factory managers showed him a model of the Gnome, their new sub-compact car. "Just great! "


The tour was part of a well-orchestrated attempt by the government on Sunday to improve its strained relations with Russia's most powerful manufacturers, who have so far found their most sympathetic audience in the government's opposition.


Gaidar and key members of his cabinet came to Togliatti, an industrial city on the Volga, 1000 kilometers southeast of Moscow, to show directors of 47 of Russia's largest enterprises that the government was also listening to them.


And while both sides called the meeting a success, it was unclear whether the visit with the captains of industry did the Gaidar government any good.


The industrialist's traditional supporters, parliament and the opposition Civic Union bloc have been calling for changes in the personnel and course of the Gaidar cabinet, and will try to accomplish these goals when Russia's highest legislature, the Congress of People's Deputies, convenes Dec. 1.


Directors on Sunday repeatedly voiced support for the government, but asked it to be more sympathetic to their problems, especially concerning high prices and taxes, relieving interenterprise debt, and giving them a stronger say in the privatization of their firms.


Vladimir Kadannikov, who heads the Volga Autoworks, summed up the director's position: "What's good for us is good for Russia".


The common perception of Gaidar in industrialist circles is of an intelligent economist preoccupied by macro-economic theories, who knows and cares little about the way Russian industry currently works, and prefers to lecture his audiences like an economics professor.


An anecdote circulating around the conference Sunday illustrated this perception. Accidentally meeting two directors of stricken St. Petersburg factories after prices were freed in January, Gaidar reportedly said distractedly, "Oh, you haven't gone bankrupt yet? "


When Gaidar took the podium, however, he did little to dispel this view. The acting prime minister gave a short speech in which he chided directors for causing their own problems - and in which he looked like anyone but a prime minister whose government has been given 30 days to live.


"Directors say that prices have gone up and they have no money. Who raised these prices? " Gaidar asked. "Who has the biggest debts? The companies that raised prices the most".


Gaidar told directors that their debt problems would be less critical if they helped keep prices down and paid attention to the financial condition of their partners.


"There are two kinds of directors - those who can't get used to what's


going on and are calling for the beloved boss to step in", he said. "And there are those who want to take things into their own hands and make something of the opportunity in front of them".


Additional reporting: Mikhail Metzel