THE Chechen gunmen holding 1200 hostages in the Russian republic of Dagestan freed a number of women and children yesterday, a Russian general said.
Gen Alexander Mikhailov told, reporters the guerrillas had released four women, three children and a teenager from the village of Pervomayskaya where they are trapped, but did not say if any deal had been made.
The 200 separatist rebels, who have vowed to fight "to the last bullet" to get back across the border from Dagestan to Chechnya, remained in the village.
"We want to get the rest of the hostages released and do not want any information to come out that would hinder this", Gene Mikhailov told correspondents outside Pervomayskaya. "We will take them home, but we're not going to tell you by which route."
A member of Dagestan's local parliament, Mr Gamid Gamidov, said negotiators were determined to do everything possible to save the hostages' lives. But he was pessimistic about the chances of progress in negotiations.
"It is hard to say what will happen, but there is little hope of a successful outcome," he said.
The hostages' ordeal began on Tuesday, when the guerrillas caught Russian defences off guard and seized about 2,000 people captive in a hospital in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar. They are demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
Mr Sergei Medvedev, spokesman for President Boris Yeltsin, said the Kremlin leader was being briefed fully on the crisis. Mr Yeltsin faces a difficult decision over whether to use force to end a crisis that could affect his hopes of re election in June.
A Liberal Russian politician Mr Yegor Gaidar, offered himself as a hostage to replace the women and children being held by the rebel group, which calls itself Lone Wolf. There was no response from Moscow authorities.
At least 23 people were killed during the raid on Kizlyar. Russian television showed a crowd of several hundred people attending a funeral service for six policemen who died.
More Russian military trucks and armoured personnel carriers moved towards Pervomayskaya yesterday.
Russian officials have said they will not give in to the rebels and in a sign that events could take a turn for the worse, Russian troops evacuated women and children from Sovietskoye, several miles from Pervomayskaya.
It was the second time Chechen Separatists have taken their struggle for independence outside their homeland since Russia sent in troops in December 1994 to" crush its independence drive. A group of fighters took hundreds" of hostages in a hospital in the Russian town of Budennovsk last June and scores of people died in a shootout with Russian forces, before the Prime Minister, Mr, Viktor Chernomyrdin, negotiated, the rebels departure.
Russia has been tougher this time and Dagestani officials have led the negotiations rather than people from the Kremlin.