President Yeltsin has pledged to launch a major offensive against anti-Semitism in Russia.

In his first television interview since two months of hospital treatment for pneumonia, Mr Yeltsin said a new law would be introduced to counter extremist behaviour.

Correspondents say the President was reacting to the unease within Russia created by an increasing number of openly anti-Semitic speeches by senior Communist party figures.

They say Mr Yeltsin appeared fit and at ease during the programme, smiling and joking with his interviewer.

He also pledged he would protect freedom of speech by all possible means.

And President Yeltsin again rejected suggestions that he might resign before the end of his term in the year two-thousand.