Rob Parsons: The Prime Minister and not President Yeltsin now has real authority

In a three-hour visit to the Kremlin, the ailing president sacked some of his closest aides and took direct control of the Ministry of Justice and the tax police.

The 67-year-old president has been away from the Kremlin for more than two weeks receiving treatment for pneumonia.

After an apparently tense meeting with his staff, during which he looked angry and was seen stabbing the air with his fingers, Mr Yeltsin returned to hospital.

President Yeltsin - concerned about being sidelined

He said the officials, including his chief of staff, Valentin Yumashev, had to go because the administration had failed to stop the erosion of trust in presidential authority.

He was unhappy, he said, with the way his team were handling the struggle against extremism, separatism and corruption.

Sidelined

Our Moscow correspondent, Robert Parsons says that most of all Mr Yeltsin is unhappy at the way his latest spell in hospital has left him sidelined from power.

It has been suggested that Mr Yumashev - who previously controlled all access to the president and his family - lost favour with Mr Yeltsin after making negative comments about the president's state of health.

Mr Yumashev and other aides had said openly that the president was too sick to handle the day-to-day running of Russia.

Instead, the prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov, has taken charge.

Our correspondent says that Mr Yeltsin's sudden appearance in the Kremlin shows that despite the decline of his now diminished authority he has not given up the fight, but few will be convinced that he can re-impose his will.

Extra workload

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In another unexpected move, Mr Yeltsin announced he was taking direct control of the Ministry of Justice and the tax police.

How he will deal with the extra work in his present state of health is open to question.

Nikolai Bordyuzha: New chief of staff

Mr Yumashev, also a personal friend to Mr Yeltsin, was replaced by Nikolai Bordyuzha, secretary of the president's advisory body, the Security Council. Mr Bordyuzha will keep his present job as well as taking on the new one.

Among other staff sacked by Mr Yeltsin was the head of the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information, Alexander Starovoitov. He has been replaced by Vladislav Sherstyuk.