PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin announced yesterday that he had come up with a "peaceful solution" to the war in Chechnya, as Russian planes and artillery bombed rebels in the republic.
The president, who hopes to resolve the 15 month war before his re election bid in June, said after a meeting of his Kremlin security council a plan had been agreed on, but gave no details, ITAR TASS news agency said.
A statement said there were now conditions for policy to be based on "purely political methods." Mr Yeltsin (65), promised to reveal all in a television address later this month "so that every Russian understands what measures will be taken and what their results are," ITAR TASS reported.
As the security council met, Russian forces pounded the independence fighters in the western village of Bamut, which federal troops have been trying to capture for more than a year.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said shooting could be heard in the western village of Samashki, site of a massacre by Russian troops last year.
A Chechen pro independence official was quoted by Interfax as saying that Russian planes and artillery were also firing near the southeastern mountain villages of Vedeno and Nozhai Yurt, as well as in central Chechnya.
Yeltsin's security council includes the prime minister, the defence, interior, secret services minister's and the minister for ethnic relations, among others.
Although he gave no details Yeltsin indicated that the adopted plan was little changed from a draft presented at a security council meeting last Thursday. That plan offered almost no concessions to the rebels, saying that negotiations would be carried out by the local Russian installed authorities, not by Moscow, and that the top rebel leadership would be ignored.
But bypassing the separatist leadership is likely to be impossible. The independence fighters showed they are still a serious force to be reckoned with by attacking Russian positions throughout the Chechen capital, Grozny last week.
This week, Russian forces went on a new offensive, seizing the small western town of Sernovodsk in a hail of artillery fire and sparking accusations of rape and other atrocities from refugees. International aid workers and journalists remained barred from the town yesterday.
Russia's top general in Chechnya, Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, was quoted yesterday by ITAR TASS as saying that "the operation in Bamut will continue until the complete destruction of the (rebel) base."
He said that tanks opened fire at dawn on the shattered village, 40 kilometres (25 miles) southwest of Grozny. An attempt by troops to attack Bamut, which was pummelled on Thursday by Tupolev 22 "backfire" strategic bombers, was postponed until today. Interfax news agency quoted military sources as saying.
Meanwhile, a top rebel leader, Akhmed Zakayev, told AFP that overall Chechen commander Aslan Maskhadov was not badly wounded as reported by the Russians, and that a leading field commander Salman Raduyev - who led a daring raid and hostage taking in neighbouring Dagestan in January - had been wounded but not killed, as the Russians said.