Russia's ORT television reported no major clashes overnight, federal troops using the lull to reinforce positions along the Terek River that separates the Russia-controlled northern third of Chechnya from the rest of the republic.

Russian forces surged towards the outskirts of Grozny on Saturday, ousting 200 Chechen soldiers defending high ground northwest of the Chechen capital after heavy air and artillery strikes.

Chechen and Russian reports put federal forces anywhere from 30 to less than 20 kilometres from Grozny, which Chechen officials vowed Saturday to defend.Officials in Grozny reported overnight shelling and air strikes against settlements ringing the Chechen capital, notably Tolstoi-Yurt and Vinogradnoye to the north, Pervomayskoye and Dolinsky to the West, Interfax said.

On Chechnya'seastern border with Dagestan, the villages of Nozhai-Yurt and Zandak were also pounded, Chechen government officials said. Russia's NTV television broadcast pictures on Saturday of Russian armour progressing along the far eastern edge of the Tersky Ridge which stretches up to the villages that make up the northwestern suburbs of Grozny.

The ridge overlooks the villages of Dolinsky, Raduzhnoye and Pobedinskoye, which stand at the northwestern gates of Grozny, barely 20 kilometres west of the city centre. Chechen officials said Saturday the settlements were still controlled by their forces. Russia's NTV television said federal troops were less than 20 kilometres from Grozny after surging forward following the seizure Friday of Goragorsky, a Chechen stronghold some 60 kilometres west of Grozny.

With his forces now within striking distance of the capital of the breakaway republic, General Viktor Kazantsev, commander of the Russian Army in the North Caucasus, said the ball was now in the court of PresidentAslan Maskhadov and the Chechen leadership. "We do not yet know if we will enter Grozny. Everything depends on the behaviour of the other side" he said.