NO PRESSING NEED FOR SOVIET WHEAT SUBSIDY - LYNG The Soviets have not indicated an urgent need for a U.S. wheat subsidy offer, and it is unlikely that such an offer will be ma during the U.S./Soviet summit expected to be held next month, Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng told Reuters. In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Lyng said he did not know if the United States will offer Moscow another wheat subsidy offer this year or when that offer will be made. "Last year it was well into the year before we offered it. There's been nothing that's taken place to indicate to me that there's a pressing need on their part for that sort of deal (a wheat subsidy)." When asked if a subsidy would be offered at a U.S./Soviet summit, Lyng said, "No, I don't think so. I don't think that." The Agriculture Secretary said a U.S. wheat subsidy deal to Moscow would not be the kind of topic appropriate for discussion at a summit. "It would not be the kind of issue that the President or the Chairman would get into specific negotiations or discussions about," Lyng said. "When Mr. Nikonov (communist party secretary for agriculture) was here ... he indicated that trade in wheat was not something that would be discussed with the President of the United States. He said it's not presidential," Lyng said. Lyng said uncertainties about wheat quality in some major producing areas of the world, volatile wheat prices and the still unfinished Soviet grain harvest could delay any final decision on the timing of another wheat subsidy to Moscow. The future of the U.S./Soviet long-term grains agreement will be discussed the first of next year, Lyng said, but the Agriculture Secretary questioned the benefits of the long-standing agreement. "We've had three years in a row in which the Soviets have failed to live up to their end of the agreement ... We would love to continue to keep doing busines with the Soviet Union, but do we need a long-term agreement. Who benefits from that. These are some of the questions we need to discuss." When asked if he felt the United States has benefitted from the agreement, Lyng said, "I don't know. It certainly hasn't been what we had hoped it would be. For three years running they've (Moscow) failed to live up to what we considered was an agreement."