FIERCE fighting has resumed in Chechnya a little over 24 hours after President Yeltsin announced hostilities were to cease. And in an interview carried by the Azerbaijani news agency Turan, the Chechen leader, Gen Dzhokhar Dudayev, said talks through an intermediary between his side and the Russian authorities could not begin until after a complete Russian military pullout.
No complete withdrawal has been offered in Mr Yeltsin's peace plan but observers see some hope in Gen Dudayev's statement in that he did not completely reject the possibility of talks which could lead to a settlement.
We are realists and are sure that the authorities in Moscow are not ready for any normal talks. Yeltsin's team is just waiting for us to capitulate, the Turan report quoted Gen Dudayev as saying.
The Russian commander on the ground, Gen Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, said that talks with the Chechen rebels would involve a single item the method by which the Chechens would lay down their arms. Troop withdrawals would not be possible until the end of April at the earliest, he added.
Yesterday's fighting took place in several villages in southern and western Chechnya with reports that air strikes, artillery bombardments and Grad rocket launchings could be heard in the combat area.
While Mr Yeltsin's plan was regarded by most Russians as doomed to failure like all his previous peace initiatives, Mr Yeltsin has gained some political capital from the move in the run up to the presidential elections on June 16th.
The Democratic Choice of Russia party, led by a former prime minister, Mr Yegor Gaidar, said yesterday it supported the plan and would hold a meeting with the committee to re-elect Mr Yeltsin. Up to now Mr Gaidar has been bitterly opposed to Mr Yeltsin's conduct of the war.
But other leading reformers, including two prominent members of Mr Gaidar's party, have announced they strongly oppose Mr Yeltsin's candidacy and are setting Lip a committee to support the candidature of the reformist economist, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky.
Among those who have moved into the Yavlinsky camp are Ms Yelena Bonner, the widow of the dissident Andrei Sakharov Mr Sergei Kovalyov, the human rights campaigner, former government minister Ms Ella Pamfilova and prominent Moscow liberals Mr Yuri Afanasyev and Mr Arkady Murashev.
Mr Yeltsin's campaign got another boost yesterday at the signing of a treaty in the Kremlin which is planned to lead to the integration of Russia and Belarus. The treaty, signed by Mr Yeltsin and President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, and formally blessed by Patriarch Alexi II, Patriarch of Moscow and All the Russia's, was the main subject of national TV coverage.
The link up between the two countries is expected to be followed by closer ties with the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
These moves have allowed Mr Yeltsin to steal the clothes of the Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, who holds a seven point lead in the opinion polls and has campaigned for a restoration of the USSR.
More than 10,000 Belarussians massed in the centre of Minsk yesterday to protest against the pact on integration with Russia. The protesters, prevented from approaching the parliament by police cordons, defied a ban on public gatherings by shouting "Long live Belarus" and marching down the city's main thoroughfare to the city's sports arena.
