Chechen rebels blamed for blast

Ivanov has been put in charge of the investigation

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has gone to a military hospital targeted in a suicide attack blamed on Chechen separatists which killed up to 40 people.

Mr Ivanov - who has been sent by President Putin to personally investigate the blast in North Ossetia - said he had suspended two military commanders for possible negligence.

Officers on guard in Mozdok - home to a military base - had explicit orders to check every car.

But a suicide bomber was able to drive a truck packed with ammonium nitrate explosive outside the hospital's front doors and detonate it.

Rescue efforts involving more than 1,000 people are still going on, but hopes of finding any more survivors in the rubble of the collapsed building are fading.

More than 100 people were in the hospital - which treats civilians as well as Russian soldiers - when the bomb was detonated on Friday.

Officials say they have now traced the truck's movements.

The victims are mainly soldiers who were receiving treatment after service in nearby Chechnya.

Blow for Kremlin

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Investigators blame Chechen separatists for what they say was a well-planned attack and an act of revenge.

However Salambek Maigov, Moscow spokesman for moderate rebel Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, said the separatist leadership was not involved.

"We have never carried out, and do not carry out such acts," he told Reuters news agency, but said he could not talk on behalf of other Chechen groups.

MOZDOK ATTACK In pictures: Hospital blast

The four-storey building was destroyed after a lorry packed with explosives crashed through the entrance gates and a suicide bomber at the wheel blew himself up, Russian media said.

Health authorities in North Ossetia have made an urgent appeal for people to donate blood.

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford says the attack is another blow to the Kremlin, which claims to have the situation in Chechnya under control.

Questions are being asked about how this attack could have happened in one of Russia's most heavily-fortified towns, our correspondent says.

The Mozdok bomb is the latest in a wave of suicide attacks on Russia.

President Putin has vowed there will be no change to his policy on Chechnya, which is due to hold presidential elections on 5 October.

But Chechen rebels have already rejected the plan and have vowed to resist Russian forces.