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Chechen fighters holding up Russian advance

MOSCOW: Chechen militants fighting Russian forces in the breakaway region said on Sunday they were holding up the advance of Moscow's troops both in the mountainous south and the outskirts of the regional capital, Grozny.

Russian television correspondents, reporting from the Mozdok military base just outside Chechnya, said Russian warplanes were taking off almost without interruption to bomb militant targets.

Acting President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the offensive, on which he has largely built his popularity, was going according to plan despite setbacks last weekend when the rebels launched several surprise raids on Russian positions.

Rebel spokesman Movladi Udugov said clashes had taken place in the southern villages of Duba-yurt and Serzhen-yurt on Saturday and that Russian forces were beaten back.

"Fierce battles continue but the Russians cannot move forward," said Udugov, speaking by telephone from an unknown localtion.

He said Chechen forces had re-established control over strategic heights outside Duba-yurt after the encounter. The Russian Defence Ministry was not immediately available to comment on Udugov's statements.

Udugov also said that Russian warplanes were concentrating their bombing on several villages in the south on Sunday, including Vedeno, Sharoi, Shatoi and Itum-Kale.

Russia's four-month-old campaign against the militants went forward quickly until its forces came up against strong resistance in Grozny and in the south, the militants' traditional mountain stronghold.

But Putin, who has vowed to wipe the militants and restore Russian control over Chechnya, said that the offensive was going as planned.

"We will finally take Grozny, this will be the first stage. The second stage is that we will finish the operation in the mountains, no matter who is running around and hiding in caves," he said, referring to southern mountain strongholds.

Putin leads opinion polls for a March 26 presidential election, although political analysts say that any sharp turn for the worse in the Chechen campaign could hit his popularity.

A correspondent for Russian ORT public television reported from the Mozdok base that warplanes were taking off virtually continuously, although it was not clear if they were to bomb Grozny or the south.

He also quoted military sources at the base as saying that skirmishes continued outside Grozny. Udugov said most fighting in the besieged regional capital was taking place at a factory on the southeast edge of the town.-Reuters