A legal government could be set up in Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya within eight to ten months, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Koshman on December 24.

The federal administrations of Gudermes, Grozny rural and Achkhoi-Martan districts will be established by the end of next January and the authorities of all other districts -- before May, he said.

The Chechen republic will vote in the Russian presidential elections next June, said Koshman, who is also the Russian Cabinet 's envoy in the republic.

"Today Chechnya has two houses of parliament elected in 1996. We will have more members elected, then the head of the government will be elected and a government is to be formed. Following that, local elections can be held," he said.

A total of 45,000 to 50,000 people are still staying in Grozny, Koshman said. About 8,000 have left the city in recent days. Two tent camps for a total of 6,000 have been prepared in Znamenka. Some of those who fled Grozny are staying in the private sector, Koshman said.

"Now it is better for people to stay in Grozny while the operation is underway. It is days before the Grozny question is finally struck from the agenda," he said.

According to the Interfax news agency, Russian federal troops have cut off passages to the Argrun gorge, which links Chechnya and Georgia.

Russia's Western and Eastern military groups have controlled the natural gate through which the Argun River flows into the valley. Paratroopers were deployed on the Georgian border and the militants were isolated from all flat-land Chechnya.

Artillery and aviation bombing has become much more intensive in mountainous villages over the past days.

Russian forces have been preventing rebels from breaking out of Chechnya's besieged capital, Grozny, to mountainous regions, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

The Chechen rebels hope to spend the winter on bases they are setting up in mountain regions difficult to access.

The rebel command was planning acts of sabotage against Russian posts on strategic roads outside Grozny, but it is impossible for the gangsters to break out of the tightly gripped city, said the ministry.