President Yeltsin has sacked the head of the state tax service, Alexander Pochinok, and replaced him with a former finance minister - the reformist, Boris Fyodorov - as part of further attempts to ease the Russian economic crisis.

Yesterday, Mr Yeltsin promised that heads would roll over the government's poor tax collection record.

New measures have also been introduced to seize the assets of companies owing taxes.

The International Monetary Fund is expected to announce shortly that it will be recommending the release of a frozen installment in a ten-billion dollar loan to Russia.

The government needs the money to stabilise the markets and to meet its mounting bills.