950805

Fighting on across

Chechnya

despite mly accord

GROZNY: Sporadic shooting rang out across Chechnya early Friday, just hours after President Boris Yeltsin hailed a breakthrough, if shaky, military accord signed in the breakaway region.

Yeltsin went on national television Thursday night to promise an end to the eight-month war in the southern republic.

"I believe peace and stability will soon return to Chechen soil," Yeltsin said in his first major appearance since a recent hospital stay.

The military agreement, signed Sunday by Russian and rebel delegates in the Chechen capital, Grozny, is seen as the first, critical step in a comprehensive settlement of the bloody conflict.

But it is unclear whether the Chechen leadership can control its ragged forces spread the foothills of the tiny mountain republic.

Chechen commander Aslan Maskhadov ordered his men to cease military action from midnight Tuesday. On Wednesday, Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev approved the accord.

Fighting has lessened but not ceased since the agreement. Overnight Friday, Chechen fighters launched a three-hour firefight which raged for more than three hours in the Leninsky region of Grozny, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

One interior ministry serviceman and two riot policemen were wounded in that and 15 other overnight attacks, the Russian military command said. There were no reports of rebel casualties.

Both Russian and Chechen fighters remain tense despite the accord, and relations between the negotiators have been strained accord, Dudayev sacked his chief negotiator for making too many concessions.

In one such major agreement, the Chechens agreed to lay down arms before Chechnya's political status is settled. They also approved the continued presence of Russian motorized infantry and interior ministry units.

Meanwhile, a group of observers met in Grozny on Friday to work out a prisoner exchange, part of the military agreement, Itar-Tass said.

Outside, a crowd of determined soldiers' mothers gathered to demand news of their missing sons.-AP/APP