The commander of Russian troops in Chechnya and the region's new civilian administrator agreed yesterday that the Russian military would no longer launch air or artillery attacks there, Interfax news agency reported.
Gen Gennady Troshev and the Chechen religious leader Mr Akhmad Kadyrov, quoted by Interfax in Tsentoroi, east of the regional capital, Grozny, said the war against Chechen separatists was all but over.
Mr Kadyrov, a religious leader appointed civil administrator of Chechnya, said it was up to Russia's Interior Ministry troops to "deal with the fight against banditism as they do in other parts of Russia".
Gen Troshev was quoted as saying that under the agreement Russian troops "are not to undertake attacks and not carry out air or artillery strikes". Many army units would be sent back to bases where they were assigned in the region.
Gen Troshev later yesterday told NTV television he believed that up to 1,500 "isolated" fighters still operated in small groups in Chechnya.
"We are continuing to fulfil our task here but with different means - thorough searches and inspections," he said. "There are bandits. For many these are someone's father, brother or husband. They keep them fed and hidden. But I'm sure they are trying to persuade their sons to stop resistance."
Mr Kadyrov, who was appointed civil administrator by the Kremlin earlier this month, said, said a weekend meeting of leading Muslim clergy in the region had urged President Aslan Maskhadov and fighters under his command to lay down their weapons and stop resisting the Russian army.
Mr Kadyrov fought on the side of the rebels in the first Chechen war, which culminated in a humiliating Russian withdrawal. He later switched to the Russian side and helped to negotiate the entry of Moscow's troops into Chechen towns.
A military statement, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency, said meanwhile that Russian forces had killed 17 separatist fighters on Saturday. It said that for the first time this year, the Russian side had suffered no casualties, despite nine rebel attacks.