THE former Soviet president, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, was attacked while campaigning in Russia's presidential election yesterday, Mr Gorbachev's press service said.
Members of his staff described the assault in Siberia as an assassination attempt. But the RCA news agency said Mr Gorbachev was punched in the face in what it described as an act of "hooliganism".
RIA said Mr Gorbachev (65) was attacked on his way to address a largely hostile meeting in the western Siberian city of Omsk. It said his attacker was arrested.
Mr Gorbachev was the architect of perestroika and glasnost and presided over the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. He is now campaigning for President of the Russian Federation.
Recent polls put his support at less than 1 per cent of voters. Earlier this week, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying he was negotiating to join forces with three other presidential candidates, Mr Svyatoslav Fyodorov, Gen Alexander Lebed and Mr Grigory Yavlinsky.
Meanwhile, President Yeltsin arrived in Beijing yesterday to seal ties with China that have reached their highest point since the Sino Soviet alliance of the 1950s.
"Relations are at the best they've been since the early years of China's communist government," one western diplomat said.
Aides have said Mr Yeltsin, whose honeymoon with the West has soured over Nato plans to expand towards Russia's borders, was keen to make sure that all was well on his Far East frontier, with no time bombs ticking in relations with China.
Mr Yeltsin, who last week hosted a summit of the Group of Seven industrialised nations (G7) that backed a nuclear test ban and met President Clinton, has hinted he would invite China to join.
Mr Yeltsin, who has so far failed to win full G7 membership for Russia, said before leaving Moscow he had been authorised by its members to discuss the test ban issue with China.