Moscow  - President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday said Russia is ready to consider downgrading its anti-terrorist operations in Chechnya, where it has fought separatists in two wars in the early 1990s, the news agency Interfax reported.

"Since the situation in the Chechen republic has normalized to a large degree and life is returning to normal ... I propose we consider ending the counterterrorism regime which operates in Chechnya," Medvedev told the head of Russia's FSB security services.

Moscow - Rebels in the Caucasus republic of Ingushetia attacked Saturday a Russian army convoy, killing two soldiers and wounding at least five, the military said.

A military staff spokesman told the Interfax agency that at least 30 rebels took part in the attack on the convoy.

The Ingushetia opposition claimed that far higher casualties were inflicted on the Russian soldiers, with its internet site ingueshetia. org - citing what were termed unofficial accounts - that 50 soldiers died in the attack.

Moscow - Russia's General Prosecutor's office on Thursday ordered a special investigative team to probe the murder of high-profile Chechen politician and former pro-Kremlin lawmaker Ruslan Yamadayev.

Yamadayev was gunned down in central Moscow on Wednesday.

He was the oldest brother in a powerful Chechen clan that has clashed with Kremlin-appointed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Business dailies Kommersant and Vedemosti led with headlines calling Yamadayev's murder the death of Kadyrov's greatest enemy.

Moscow - Four law enforcement soldiers were found shot dead in the Russian Caucasus near the border with Chechnya, Ingushetia's Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

A spokesman said the members of Russia's special forces had been ambushed on the highway by unknown persons.

"As a result of shooting, all four military men who were in a vehicle died on the spot," - the spokesman was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. An investigation was under way.

Earlier in the day, Russia's FSB secret services said they had killed 10 rebel gunmen in an early morning shootout in the neighbouring Caucasus republic of Dagestan.