A battalion of paratroopers from the Dagestan town of Buynakskhad been sent to reinforce troops fighting Islamic insurgents in the Botlikh mountain region near the Chechnya border.

The agency said the insurgents' commander, Chechen Field Commander Shamil Bassayev, had announced that his forces would mount a counter-offensive in the next three days.

In the Volga Delta city of Astrakhan to the North, the Caspian sea fleet was testing its combat-readiness and beginning exercises on orders from here.

Dagestan authorities were meanwhile quoted by Russian media as saying that two Polish women working for the Polish Academy of Science had been abducted in central Dagestan.

Russian government sources said nearly 10,000 civilians had fled the region since the fighting flared up ten days ago, while the Duma Defence Committee said 18,000Russian troops and militiamen were involved.

Russian forces, Dagestani police and armed volunteers were said to be entering what they saw as the final phase of driving the rebels out.

Russia's designated Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, has said the Muslim rebel insurgency would be put down by the end of the month. Russian forces were also authorised to fire at targets in the breakaway Chechen republic if necessary.

The rebel leaders are seeking to establish an independent Islamic state of Dagestan which they want to unite with Chechnya. Chechnya would then have access to the Caspian sea in what is seen as a campaign to seize the entire Northern Caucasian region from Russia.

Meanwhile, Russian jets and helicopters resumed raids at dawn on Monday on three mountain villages in southern Russia where Islamic militants have been entrenched for more than a week.

After a quiet night, Russian SU-25 jets and MI-8 helicopters began hammering the villages and continued airstrikes throughout the morning. Plumesof smoke were visible from Botlikh, the nearby town where forward Russian forces are based.