West out of order on Chechnya — Yeltsin

"We are for peace and for a political solution in Chechnya. That is exactly why we need the total elimination of armed gangs and terrorists. There is no question of negotiations with bandits," he said.

He condemned Western attempts to interfere in Russian internal affairs. "We see the excessive consequences of such interference. You have only to remember the NATO aggression led by the US against Yugoslavia," he said.

Yeltsin’s addresscame as the Chechnya conflict threatened to overshadow the two-day summit which brings together 54 countries in the name of European security and arms control.

US President Bill Clinton, meanwhile, called on Russia to allow the OSCE to mediate in its bloody dispute with Chechnya. "The OSCE and others can play a role in facilitating that dialogue…that is the role the OSCE was meant to play," Clinton told the opening session of the security body’s summit."Russia’s friends are united, I think, in what we think should happen," Clinton said, "appropriate measures to end terrorism, protection of innocent civilians and a commitment to allowing refugees to return in safety," he said.

The Chechnya conflict was also expected to dominate the meeting between Clinton and Yeltsin later in the day, their first head-to-head encounter in five months and potentially their most divisive ever. The two men last met at the Group-of-Eight summit in Cologne in June.

In his opening speech to the summit, OSCE chairman inoffice Knut Vollebaek reiterated that the organisation stood ready to mediate between Russia and Chechen authorities. "The OSCE is ready to facilitate dialogue to find a political solution," he said.

Moscow has repeatedly refused a political role for the pan-European security body. Adding his voice to the chorus of criticism against Russia, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned Russia’s onslaught in Chechnya as "immoral and contrary to humanitarian principles." "We are all determined to fight terrorism, but the force we use should be also proportional," he said.

Thousands of civilian lives have been lost in Chechnya and over 200,000 refugees have been sent fleeing into neighbouring republics. The Russian military has said it will continue with its strikes on Chechnya during the summit.

The summit, held every two years, is aiming to trumpet two key accords: a revised version of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty and a new Security Charter aimed at concretising Europe’s post-Cold Warsecurity structure.

The meeting will also study a plethora of regional issues as bilateral meetings are held on the sidelines. An agreement on two pipeline projects to bring oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to western markets is expected to be signed, and talks will be held on the divided island of Cyprus.