U.S.-RUSSIA . . . DESPERATELY SEEKING SUMMIT

In the face of U.S. criticism of his handling of the brutal civil war in Chechnya, Russian President Boris Yeltsin is seeking a May summit with President Clinton in Moscow to iron out the two nations' differences on a range of issues. Russian press reports said Clinton had already accepted, but U.S. officials said they are looking no farther than Tuesday's meeting between Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev in Geneva. (Some State Department staffers had tried to cancel even that meeting, fearing that the Chechnya fiasco would overshadow other topics.) In Geneva, officials said, Christopher will urge the Russians to curb the assault on Chechnya. Christopher will also try to counter Russian suspicions about NATO's expansion eastward to former Soviet satellites like the Czech Republic.