Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said on January 12 that federal troops would not suspend its offensive against rebels in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

Instead, the campaign against the rebels will be brought to its logical end, Sergeyev said.

"There will be no suspension of hostilities against the militants in Chechnya," the minister said, in an apparent response to a plea made Tuesday by Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov.

Sergeyev said he was opposed to negotiations with Chechen leaders because Maskhadov has little authority in Chechnya, noting that even some Western leaders critical of the Russian military action in the North Caucasus republic find it difficult to name any concrete participants from the Chechen side in the proposed talks.

The military campaign was launched last September following two waves of Chechen armed incursions into neighboring Daghestan and a series of apartment bombings, also blamed on Chechen militants, that killed over 300 people in Moscow and two other cities. Sergeyev said that federal troops "were successfully advancing toward the southern mountain districts of Chechnya" and that paratroopers, who had landed on the heights near the Argun gorge Tuesday, enabled them to take full control of one third of the strategically important position, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

On the situation in Grozny, Sergeyev said that special assault groups trained for street battles would be used in the liberation of the Chechen capital, with massive air and artillery support.

Following rebel counter-attacks against federal troops in the past several days, Sergeyev said, acting president Putin, also the country's prime minister, on Wednesday approved a new plan of the military operation against the rebels.

"The situation in Chechnya has changed dramatically lately, and the expansion of the security zone in Chechnya requires a new style and new methods of troops control," the minister said. (Xinhua)