Russia has offered a reward of €8.5 million for information to help it hunt down two Chechen rebel leaders, who are accused of being behind last week's school siege.
Russian officials have accused former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and Mr Shamil Basayev of masterminding last week's attack in Beslan.
Shamil Basayev
Interfax news agency quoted the FSB security service as saying it would pay up to 300 million roubles for information that would lead to "neutralising" the two men.
Russia's top general also said today he was ready to attack "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world.
"As for launching pre-emptive strikes on terrorist bases, we will carry out all measures to liquidate terrorist bases in any region of the world," General Yuri Baluevsky, chief of Russia's general staff, said, according to Russian news agencies. "However, this does not mean that we will launch nuclear strikes."
At least 326 people were killed - half of them children - in the siege last week. Over 720 people were wounded in the attack Only 210 of the dead have been formally identified. Efforts continue today to identify charred remains and body parts of at least 100 people.
The death toll does not include the more than 30 dead hostage-takers.
Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov said today that more than 1,200 people had been in the school - the first official admission that the number of hostages had been so high. Initially the government said about 350 had been seized.
The siege ended on Friday in a wave of explosions and gunfire as hostages tried to flee and special forces and armed civilians tried to aid them.
The Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet KGB, said the two rebel leaders had been responsible for "inhuman terrorist acts on the territory of the Russian Federation."
The foreign ministry said Russia would also take new steps seeking the extradition of people it says are linked with terrorism, including Chechen rebel political representatives Mr Akhmed Zakayev and Mr Ilyas Akhmadov. Mr Zakayev, an envoy for Mr Maskhadov, the separatist leader and former Chechen president, has been granted refugee status in the UK while Mr Akhmadov is in the US.
A captured gunman from the Beslan school siege said on state TV that he was told Mr Maskhadov was behind the attack. In London, Mr Zakayev denied that the former president had played any part, and alleged the gunman's TV statement had been extracted under torture.
"The claims of President Maskhadov's involvement in the terrorist act are part of a well thought-out disinformation campaign, which also includes officials' statements about the presence of Arab and African fighters and foreign mercenaries among the terrorists," he said.
Meanwhile it emerged today that two suspected suicide bombers were detained yesterday in Chechnya, Itar-Tass reported.
The two women, residents of the Chechen town of Shali, were suspected of taking part in terrorist activities, the news agency said, citing the Chechen regional branch of the FSB.
Agencies