Gorbachev urges special status for Chechnya

TO end a decade-long insurgency, Russia should grant breakaway Chechnya special status, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said, arguing some countries want Moscow to stay bogged down in the "Chechen quagmire".

Mr Gorbachev, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who paved the way for the downfall of communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union, also said there was an important lesson from the US-led invasion of Iraq: Don't act unilaterally.

"The crisis in Iraq has been a lesson, and I believe that lesson has been learned by both the United States and all of us," Mr Gorbachev said yesterday.