The next steps of the campaign were to be discussed during the meeting at Yeltsin's Rus residence outside Moscow where the 68-year-old Russian leader was recovering from a cold, said presidential spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin told Interfax news agency.

Government forces meanwhile continued air strikes across the breakaway republic and pounded the suburbs of the capital Grozny, news agencies reported.

Bombs fell on suspected Islamic rebel positions in the settlement of Alkhan-Churt in the north of the city, Interfax said citing Russian military officials.

Jets in the mountainous south since Tuesday destroyed a bridge and an anti-aircraft battery and mined roads, reports said. Russian troops also controlled all roads into Chechnya from therepublic of Georgia to the south, Russian RTR television reported.

Russia launched the offensive in late September after Chechen-led guerrilla forces seized villages in neighbouring Dagestan. Moscow also blamed Chechens for a string of bombings in Russia last month that killed more than 300 people.

Russian forces that now occupy the northern third of Chechnya continued to move across the Terek river 20 km north of Grozny. No serious clashes took place since Tuesday, reports said.

Troops were holding positions as little as six kilometres from the city but Russian commanders have said there will be no storm of the Grozny. Chechen forces were building defensive positions round the city and evacuating organisations and institutes, Russian defence officials said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to the north Ossetian town of Mozdok on the border with Chechnya and inspected Russian combat units in the area.