12 Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya

Twelve Russian soldiers have been killed and 19 wounded in Chechen rebel attacks over the past 24 hours.

An official in the pro-Russian Chechen administration says seven of the servicemen were killed in two land mine blasts in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Rebels have attacked federal posts and other positions 21 times over the past 24 hours, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Two soldiers were killed in a shootout with rebels near the southern town of Vedeno, he said.

The land mine blasts blew up an armoured personnel carrier and a military truck,

Four servicemen were killed in those attacks, and another was killed when rebels fired on a military jeep in the region of Chiri-Yurt in the southern district of Shali.

Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky meanwhile called on Moscow to end the war "immediately and without any preconditions."

"World experience shows that it is impossible to struggle with a nation by force. It is only possible to struggle by persuasion," he told reporters in Moscow over a video hookup from abroad.

Berezovsky, who served briefly as a Kremlin security adviser, is in self-imposed exile to avoid prosecution at home, which he says is politically motivated.