Yeltsin criticises his ministers

The Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, has marked his return to work after a two-week holiday with criticism of some senior government ministers.

Mr Yeltsin told the prime minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin, and his two deputies that they'd failed to fulfil an obligation to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars in wage arrears.

And at a separate meeting, Mr Yeltsin told the RussianInterior Minister, Anatoly Kulikov, that he should have consulted him before making a recent statement on Chechnya.

Earlier this month, Mr Kulikov said Moscow would be justified in carrying out preventive strikes against Chechen guerrilla bases.

The BBC Moscow correspondent says the president has wasted no time in showing he's fully back in charge.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service