Russian forces claimed yesterday that they had fought their way to the centre of the Chechen capital, Grozny, in an offensive expected to further boost the political standing of the acting President, Mr Vladimir Putin.
Russian troops by late yesterday had reached Minutka Square, just east of the Grozny's centre, while another column was making its way towards the heart of the ruined city from the west.
With Grozny the target of the most intense artillery fire to date, defence sources said the Chechen separatists were trying to escape through underground routes built before the Russians stormed the city last Sunday.
Black smoke billowed from multi-storey buildings attacked incessantly by aircraft, tanks and howitzers.
The ITAR-TASS news agency quoted one Russian soldier as saying that Moscow's forces were "gradually expanding their zone of control" in the city. Another soldier told AFP that the artillery barrage was so heavy, federal troops feared for their own safety.
Moscow also claimed control of a canning factory and bridge in north-western Grozny, the main city hospital, and the Prigorodnoye village east of the capital, according to ITAR-TASS, quoting the Russian Defence Ministry.
A senior Russian commander said that Grozny would fall by January 25th. "In all likelihood Grozny will be taken by that date and we will formally be able to say that the operation is over."
Mr Said-Selim Abdulmuslimov, a spokesman for the Chechen President, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, admitted the guerrillas had been forced to yield to the Russian onslaught, saying that the Zhukovsky bridge over the Sunzha river had fallen.
Russian armour was also attempting to breach rebel lines in the south-western Chernorechiye district to allow ground troops to break through, Mr Abdulmuslimov said by telephone from Chechnya.
Moscow claimed to have suffered only eight dead and 12 wounded in the past 24 hours, while 60 rebels were killed, ITAR-TASS reported. The rebels for their part claimed that 250 Russians had been killed over the past two days.
The war has triggered an exodus of more than 200,000 refugees from Chechnya into the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia, a crisis which, along with rebel claims of heavy civilian losses in Russian shelling, has prompted sharp Western criticism.
The Kremlin again came under criticism from the Council of Europe on Monday, when the body's visiting president, Lord Russell-Johnston, accused Moscow of using disproportionate force in the republic.
The British peer and his team flew to Ingushetia yesterday for talks with regional leaders.
Mr Putin, the Russian acting president who has been one of the leading proponents of the war, spent yesterday morning in the State Duma. He later met the Chinese Defence Minister, Mr Chi Haotian, who voiced his full support for the campaign.
In the Duma, the Communist Speaker Mr Gennady Seleznyov retained his post after rowdy debate at the chamber's first meeting since being elected last month.
Mr Seleznyov was the only candidate after others, including the former prime ministers Sergei Stepashin and Yevgeny Primakov, withdrew from the contest.
Several blocs stormed out of the hall, accusing the two largest parties, the Communists and the pro-Kremlin Unity bloc, of doing a back-room deal to make Mr Seleznyov speaker and give Unity leadership of many Duma committees.
Mr Seleznyov won 285 votes, with 294 of 450 deputies remaining in the chamber for the ballot. Two deputies voted against him and seven of those remaining in the hall abstained.
Mr Putin meanwhile was described by the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, as a leading reformer.
Answering questions after a wide-ranging speech in Washington on democracy and foreign policy, she also said that access to information must sooner or later bring democracy to China.
The Secretary of State said Mr Putin had two sides, including a tough one exemplified by his background in the KGB and his hard line on pursuing the war against separatist rebels in Chechnya.
"At the same time he has, I think, been one of the leading reformers, first out of St Petersburg and then within the Yeltsin administration. And he - from what we can tell - seems determined to move reform forward." Mr Putin, who became acting president on December 31st, reinforced his liberal credentials yesterday when he promised that dictatorship would never take hold in Russia and called for a partnership with the newly elected parliament to proceed with market-oriented economic change.
"Those who speak about a possible dictatorship are themselves dreaming of it," Mr Putin said after his address to the Duma's opening session. "Their dream is impossible in modern Russia. This issue is settled."