Two exiled Kremlin adversaries refused to answer key questions posed by Russian authorities probing the poisoning death of former security agent Alexander Litvinenko, a Russia investigator said in an interview published today.

Family and friends of poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko are unlikely to cooperate with a Russian investigation into his death, it was claimed tonight.

The funeral of the poisoned Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko was being held at Highgate Cemetery in north London today.

RUSSIA and the European Union should take their relations to a new and more intense level, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair said following talks with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trade, energy and anti-terror efforts will be at the top of the agenda for European Union leaders’ summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow in London.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hoped to secure the backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin at their meeting today for Britain’s ambitious G8 goals of lifting Africa out of poverty and tackling climate change.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov’s killing represents a rare propaganda victory for President Vladimir Putin and his hard-line approach to battling separatists.

CHECHEN rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, blamed by Russia for last year's school hostage slaughter, has been killed during an army raid, Russian President Vladimir Putin was told yesterday.

Representatives of a prominent Russian non-governmental organisation were on their way to London today for talks with a Chechen rebel envoy on ways to stop the war in Chechnya.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused the US of pursuing a dictatorial foreign policy and said mounting violence could derail progress toward bringing peace and democracy to Iraq.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has denied being involved in the Russian school hostage-taking and said another rebel chief, Shamil Basayev, should stand trial for staging it.

Russia has taken its case for expanding the global war against terrorism to the United Nations, calling on the UN Security Council to establish a new list of terror suspects who would be subject to extradition.

CHECHEN envoy Akhmed Zakayev said yesterday he fears there will be further massacres in his homeland if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not hold peace talks with the region’s political parties.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev directed the hostage-taking raid on a school in southern Russia.

Security officials have identified six of the militants who seized a school in southern Russia as Chechens, drawing a strong connection to the rebels who have been fighting Russian forces for years.

CHECHEN and Ingush militants who took part in last week’s deadly school siege in Russia were yesterday identified.

Russia’s foreign minister pointed an accusing finger at Britain today for exercising double standards by granting asylum to Chechen separatists.

RUSSIAN authorities have blamed the Beslan hostage crisis on “international terrorists” and are offering €8.5 million to “neutralise” the Chechen rebel leaders they claim are responsible for last week’s school siege.

Russia’s secret service has offered a near €8.8m reward for accurate information that could help “neutralise” Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin vehemently denied a link between Russia’s policies in Chechnya and last week’s hostage-taking, which claimed more than 350 lives.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is to seek the extradition of a rebel Chechen who has been granted political asylum in Britain.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pinned his hopes for peace on a last month’s contested referendum, but observers have doubted the Kremlin’s claim that most Chechens turned out and voted to approve the constitution which sets the republic’s place as part of Russia.

A SUSPECTED member of a Chechen gang was arrested in Moscow while carrying nearly 18lb of mercury, and authorities believe he intended to use the poison in a terror attack, police said yesterday.

Facing growing criticism of the secrecy surrounding how the Moscow theatre siege was ended, Russian officials today showed off explosives and other evidence found at the scene.

Two more hostages, freed from the Moscow theatre siege by Russian troops, died in hospital overnight from the gas used to incapacitate them and their captors.

Danish police have arrested a senior spokesman for Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov following a conference on how to end fighting in the breakaway Russian province.

CHECHEN President Aslan Maskhadov is prepared to hold unconditional talks with the Russian leadership to find a political solution to the bloody conflict in Chechnya, his envoy said yesterday.

'A strong and dangerous, inhuman and cruel enemy ... Nowhere in the world can people feel secure until it is vanquished. And it will be vanquished'

One of the leading rebel warlords in Chechnya, a Jordanian whom the US has said is linked to Osama bin Laden, has been killed, Russia's main security service said today.

The US Government has welcomed the willingness of Chechnya’s rebel leader to begin peace talks with the Russian Government, describing it as a positive step towards ending the two-year-old war.