Pressure is growing on Russia to end the mystery over a Radio Liberty journalist, Andrei Babitsky, who is missing in Chechnya.

The European Commission has added its voice to the outcry, following an appeal on Wednesday from the US State Department for Moscow to tell the truth.

The Commission's President, Romano Prodi, said Europe wanted to investigate the situation on the ground.

"Our commission was not admitted four days ago to visit Chechnya. We are insisting on sending (a new one) to analyse the situation and make a decision on this specific case," he said after meeting the Latvian Prime Minister Andris Skele in Riga.

Putin held responsible

In Paris, the pressure group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) delivered a letter to the Russian embassy saying that it held Acting President Vladimir Putin personally responsible for Mr Babitsky's fate.

The letter denounces Moscow for violating the Geneva convention on prisoners of war and using journalists as a bargaining tool in the Chechen conflict.

Russian officials said Mr Babitsky had been handed over to Chechen rebels last week in an exchange for five Russian prisoners, but the US administration cast doubt on this story.

State Department spokesman James Rubin, said the reporter's disappearance, and incomplete and contradictory explanations by Russian officials, had "raised the greatest fears as to his fate".

'Mistake'

An RSF official said the Paris embassy's first secretary Konstantin Petrichonko, "admitted the whereabouts of the journalist were unknown" and that Moscow had made a mistake in exchanging him for the five Russian soldiers.

Mr Babitsky went missing in mid-January as he attempted to leave rebel-held parts of the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Russian officials later admitted he had been detained, but said he had volunteered to be swapped for Russian prisoners.

On Tuesday, Russian TV showed a video which appeared to show Mr Babitsky after the exchange.

However, the journalist's colleagues at Radio Liberty's Moscow bureau said the recording could have been made by the Russian security services.

They said Mr Babitsky was seen in the Russian-controlled city of Gudermes on Tuesday, looking bruised and bloody.

Chechen foreign minister Ilyas Akhmadov has denied that Mr Babitsky is being held by the rebels.