Meanwhile Bislan Gantamirov, the former mayor of Grozny installed as head of a pro-Russian Chechen government, called on Moscow to pursue its crackdown in as he left Moscow for Russian-controlled areas of Chechnya.

On the ground, artillery gunners targeted Urus-Martan and Grozny overnight, said military officials quoted by Russian television, as well as rebel outposts in the hills overlooking the former Chechen stronghold of Bamut, West of the capital.

Defence ministry officials said artillery fire and air strikes had been concentrated on fortified rebel positions throughout the breakaway republic, reporting heavy loss of life among Chechen troops,ORT television said.

The battle for Chechnya shifted has shifted to Urus-Martan over the past few days, with federal troops seizing control of neighbouring settlements and Grozny rushing reservists into the town. Federal troops and Chechen fighters armed with anti-aircraft missiles and grenade launchers on Sunday and Monday clashed around the town that commands the southern route to the capital Grozny.

Moscow claims Grozny is already 80 per cent surrounded and is anxious to snap shut a gathering pincer movement and force the government of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov to surrender.

Russian troops told AFP they expected Urus-Martan to fall this week, a development which would make resupplying the besieged capital with men, munitions and food hugely complicated. Beside its strategic significance, Urus-Martan is widely seen as the centre of the lucrative hostage-taking trade which has plagued Chechnya since the end of the 1994-96 war there.

General Anatoly Kvashnin, Chief of the Russian Defencestaff, has ruled out a full frontal assault on Grozny. ``It will be like in Gudermes or Achkhoi-Martan,'' Kvashnin said on Monday.The quickening pace of the Russian advance has left the Russians in control of around half the republic, although the mountainous districts remain largely in rebel hands.

`200 Russians killed'