US-Chechen meeting

Reports from Washington say State Department officials have gone ahead with a planned meeting with Chechen rebel representatives.

The talks are said to have focused on human rights in the Caucasus republic and the prospect of peace talks with Moscow.

The Bush administration announced last week it would continue contacts with the separatists, despite warnings from Moscow that the meetings would have negative consequences to relations between Russia and the United States.

Before the latest meeting, Washington condemned a spate of car bomb attacks near Chechnya, and said they reinforced the need a political solution for the Chechen crisis.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service