Chechen rebel leader Mr Aslan Maskhadov has ordered all Chechen fighters to observe a ceasefire in February, a rebel website reported last night.
Site www.kavkazcenter.com published a statement from Mr Shamil Basayev, Russia's most wanted man and the organiser of last year's Beslan hostage-taking, which ordered all fighters to refrain from any offensive operations against Russian forces until February 22nd.
But Mr Basayev was quoted by the Timesnewspaper in London as saying he still considered Russian citizens fair targets for future fighting.
The newspaper also quoted him as saying in a Channel 4 television interview to be broadcast later today that there were plans for more operations of the kind that killed more than 330 people at the hostage-taking at the school in Belsan.
Mr Basayev's statement on the website said Mr Maskhadov had ordered his followers not to carry out diversionary attacks in Chechnya or in the rest of Russia, attacks on Russian bases, Russian convoys or vehicles, or on "traitors or unbelievers".
The website said Mr Maskhadov gave the order on January 14th as a gesture of goodwill but did not elaborate. Several of his relatives have been kidnapped in the last two months, but it was unclear if their disappearances were linked to the ceasefire.