Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected any dialogue with Chechen separatists blamed for at least 335 deaths in the school hostage siege.
"Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace?" Mr Putin told foreign journalists in Moscow yesterday.
"You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child-killers?"
"Just imagine that people who shoot children in the back came to power anywhere on our planet. Just ask yourself that, and you will have no more questions about our policy in Chechnya," Mr Putin said.
He also ruled out a public inquiry, but promised a full internal investigation into the siege.
At least 100,000 people are expected at a Moscow rally later today to denounce terrorism, bolstering Mr Putin against critics of the authorities' handling of the bloody siege.
The European Union has long advocated a political solution to the ten-year separatist war in Chechnya that has left the tiny province in tatters.
The southern town of Beslan buried more of the 335 people - half of them children - killed during a chaotic operation to free them from captors demanding independence for Chechnya.
President Vladimir Putin on his refusal to negotiate with Chechen separatists
The ruins of School No.1, where more than 1,000 hostages were held for 53 hours last week, has turned into a memorial, where funeral processions stop on their way to a new cemetery for the victims and where people come to lay flowers.
Anti-terrorism rallies, which started yesterday to accompany the two days of official mourning for the victims of the Beslan siege, will climax in a massive event outside the Kremlin.
Television newscasts and advertisements featuring cultural and sports personalities have been promoting the rally, and media quoted city police as saying they expected at least 100,000 people to take part.
But opposition politicians said the Moscow rally was deliberately planned to stave off criticism of the Kremlin's handling of the crisis and Mr Putin's failure to ensure security for ordinary Russians.
Pressure on the media to toe the Kremlin line increased with the sacking of the editor of the respected daily Izvestia, which splashed harrowing pictures of the hostage drama in its Saturday edition.
Critics say Mr Putin failed to keep a pledge he made on coming to power in 2000 to end a separatist revolt in Chechnya. They also say troops bungled Friday's operation to storm the school and free the hostages.
Mr Putin, a former KGB spy, refuses to negotiate with anyone in the Chechen separatist camp, including fugitive President Aslan Maskhadov, who denies involvement in the school siege. The Kremlin leader backs Chechnya's new President Alu Alkhanov, elected last month in a poll denounced by rights groups as rigged.
In the past two weeks Chechen rebels, who have waged a decade-long campaign for independence, have also been blamed for the downing of two airliners, killing 90 people, and a Moscow metro suicide bombing which killed ten.