The Chechen authorities have said they will hand over to British officials in Azerbaijan the bodies of the four Western telephone engineers who were beheaded three weeks ago after being kidnapped.

The Russian ITAR-TASS news agency said the bodies would be driven in two ambulances via Dagestan and would be given to British diplomats in the northern Azeri region of Khachmas early on Tuesday.

They are expected to be flown back to Britain later in the day.

Earlier the authorities in the breakaway Chechen republic rejected a British request to send the remains to Moscow.

The four men -- three Britons and a New Zealander -- were apparently executed during a bungled attempt to rescue them.