Kursk wreath-laying cancelled

President Putin meets a dead sailor's relative

President Vladimir Putin has returned unexpectedly to the Kremlin after the cancellation of a ceremony for the 118 sailors who perished on the nuclear submarine Kursk.

The ceremony was abandoned apparently at the request of the relatives, who told Mr Putin at a heated meeting on Tuesday that they were unable to mourn until the bodies were brought up from the seabed.

Relatives called for the ceremony's cancellation

Mr Putin's return to Moscow comes as Russia observes a national day of mourning for the submarine crew.

Flags have been lowered on all government buildings, and radio and television stations have replaced entertainment programmes with more sombre material.

The government has announced that the families of those killed will receive an average compensation of $7,000 - equivalent to more than 10 years' wages.

The Russian president had been expected to visit the scene of the accident to lay a wreath on the waves of the Barents Sea where the nuclear submarine sank on 12 August.

My heart hurts, but yours hurt even more

Vladimir Putin

The Northern Fleet says another ship, with room for 200 people, will head for the site on Thursday to allow families to throw flowers into the sea.

Angry families

While the official line was that Mr Putin left because there was to be no ceremony, correspondents say he was shocked by the hostile reception that he received from the 500 relatives of the Kursk's crew in Vidyayevo, near Murmansk.

A flag is lowered in St Petersburg

"The grief is immeasurable, there are not enough words of comfort," Mr Putin told the relatives.

"My heart hurts, but yours hurt even more."

Russian state television showed one of the relatives of the submariners in the audience venting her anger.

"When will we get them back, dead or alive?" she asked, referring to the bodies of the sailors. "Answer as the president."

Mr Putin replied that he would tell her if he himself knew the answer.

Kursk timeline

12 Aug: Sinks during Barents Sea exercises

14 Aug: Russian navy inspects sub

15 Aug: Attempts to attach rescue capsule fail

16 Aug: Russians report no signs of life. Accept help from the West

17 Aug: British and Norwegian craft readied for rescue attempt

19 Aug: British and Norwegian teams arrive at scene

20 Aug: Norwegian and British divers examine Kursk

21 Aug: Divers enter flooded sub

22 Aug: President Putin arrives in Murmansk

23 Aug: National day of mourning - Mr Putin returns to Moscow

The Kursk rescue operation finally came to an end on Monday after a Norwegian-led team of divers forced open the submarine's rear escape hatch and found that the whole vessel was flooded.

Experts have warned that the recovery of the bodies of the crew could take months.

Radiation watch

Russia's independent NTV on Wednesday reported that radiation levels on the coast near the site where the Kursk went down had doubled overnight.

According to the joint Russian-Norwegian environmental group, Bellona, which monitors nuclear problems across northern Russia and Scandinavia, such variations are normal and harmless.

Bellona's Thomas Nilsen says that there are absolutely no signs of any radiation from the sunken submarine the Kursk showing up on monitors in the Murmansk region.

An inquiry into the disaster will initially focus on examining the seabed around the wreck.

Russia has asked for international help to recover the bodies of the crew, and to raise the submarine to the surface.

The cause of the disaster is still unclear.

Russian officials say they believe the submarine may have collided with a Western submarine that was in the Barents Sea to monitor a large naval exercise in which the Kursk was taking part.

Western experts say the damage to the submarine appears to have been caused by a catastrophic explosion in the torpedo bay.