THE COMMUNIST leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, yesterday tried to unite some of his rivals behind him in Russia's election race.
Meanwhile in Nazran, high ranking Chechen separatist and Russian negotiators were upbeat yesterday at the end of a first day of talks aimed at consolidating a fragile ceasefire and organising a prisoner swap.
Mr Zyuganov, President Yeltsin's closest rival, stepped up his bid for the presidency by saying he was ready to offer government posts to presidential candidates from a so called "third force".
You may consider my statement as an official invitation the Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying during a campaign trip to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
He did not name anyone directly but appeared to be referring to a liberal economist Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, Gen Alexander Lebed, retired, and an eye surgeon, Mr Svyatoslav Fyodorov.
Their efforts to unite as a third force against Mr Zyuganov and Mr Yeltsin have broken down. Mr Yeltsin and Mr Zyuganov are likely to race each other in a second round showdown if, as expected, no candidate wins more than half the votes in the first round.
Communist officials left the door open to talks with the ultra nationalist, Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, after the first round of voting on June 16th, but ruled out any alliance before then.
Mr Zhirinovsky held out his own olive branch by proposing a coalition government grouping seven of the 11 candidates, including himself and Mr Zyuganov, under Mr Yeltsin as president.
Most opinion polls show Mr Yeltsin (65), has overtaken his 51 year old communist rival in the election race although such surveys have proved unreliable in the past.
In Nazran, the head of the Russian delegation at the Chechnya talks, the Nationalities Minister, Mr Vyacheslav Mikhailov, confirmed that talks would continue today. "The negotiations took place in a warm atmosphere," he said.
Today, we have succeeded in getting two generals to the table Gen Vyacheslav Tikhomirov [the head of Russian troops in Chechnya] and Mr Aslan Maskhaddv the Chechen rebel chief of staff. That's already a positive result," said the rebel spokesman, Mr Movladi Udugov.
"But I think the talks will be difficult up to the end. Tomorrow, I think we'll see whether this war can be ended or not."
The talks were agreed to in an unprecedented meeting at the Kremlin between President Yeltsin and the Chechen rebel president, Mr Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, on May 27th.
A first round planned for last Saturday, the start of a fragile ceasefire, failed to take place amid mutual accusations of military action. The talks are officially not to go beyond consolidating the ceasefire in the almost 18 month war and freeing hundreds of prisoners held by both sides.
Representatives from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe also attended the Nazran talks.