The Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, has said that the target of cutting the country's armed forces by the end of the year to one-point-two million personnel had been achieved.

Speaking to the Defence Minister, Igor Sergeyev, Mr Yeltsin is also quoted as saying that the merging of various branches, had also been accomplished and would make military management easier.

But Mr Yeltsin said that problems still remained in financing the armed forces.

Correspondents say Mr Yeltsin's most ambitious goal of ending conscription by the year two-thousand to transform the army into a modern professional force is far from being realised.