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.

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 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.

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.