Yeltsin puts off visit to Chechnya

With tension rising between Russia and Chechnya, President Yeltsin has postponed his planned visit to the breakaway republic.

The presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said the visit -- which was scheduled for this month -- could not happen in the near future.

The postponement follows a cross-border attack last month on a Russian military base by a renegade Chechen unit.

Chechen officials say they've put their troops on alert after spotting Russian forces moving towards the border.

Earlier this week the Russian Interior Minister, Anatoly Kulikov, called for preventive strikes against renegade bases in Chechnya -- a proposal the Kremlin has been keen to distance itself from.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service