Moscow  - The MICEX index, Moscow's leading stock exchange, shut down until Friday while trading on the RTS was suspended indefinitely after shares plummeted at opening on Wednesday.

The MICEX's headlong dive, dropping more than 14 per cent in the first half-hour of trading, compounded record losses in the last two days as Russia faces its worst financial crisis since the national default of 1998.

Trading on the MICEX, where most of Russia's stocks are traded, was suspended by market watchdogs at 11:05 am (0805 GMT) for two- days.

Moscow, Tskhinvali, Georgia  - Russia will pull out on Wednesday from its checkpoints inside Georgia surrounding the breakaway region of South Ossetia, the head of the Russian peacekeeping forces said.

"We plan to complete the pull-out by the end of today," Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeeping forces, was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali.

Moscow - Russia's military said Tuesday that its pullout from the buffer zone around Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia would get underway on Wednesday.

In a report by the Interfax agency, Russian forces commanding General Marat Kulakhmetov said the withdrawal would be completed within 24 hours.

"During the first half of the day tomorrow we will start with the planned withdrawal of our peacekeeping soldiers from all six observation posts," he said.

Reykjavik/Moscow - The Icelandic currency stabilized Tuesday after the central bank said Russia would grant a loan "in the amount of 4 billion euros (5.4 billion dollars)" for the coming four years.

Later the central bank said the countries "have decided to start in the next few days negotiations on financial issues," suggesting there was no done deal.

The statement was apparently in response to reactions from the Finance Ministry in Moscow which said no decision had been made, according to remarks attributed to deputy Finance Minister Dmitri Pankin by the Interfax news agency.

Russia has plentiful foreign reserves as a result of several years of record oil prices.

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday summoned the head of the country's state banks to the Kremlin after Russia's leading indexes free fell in the sharpest decline since their inception.

The start of trading was delayed until the afternoon on Moscow's RTS and MICEX exchanges following a 19 per cent dive in stocks Monday.

The Kremlin has pledged over 150 billion dollars in loans to banks and small lenders to stave off its worst financial crisis since national debt default in 1998.

Moscow  - Trading on Russia's two leading stock markets was twice halted on Monday as stocks plunged to three-year lows amid deepening woes on the European markets and a dive in oil prices.

Russia's ruble-denominated MICEX dropped 16.7 per cent to 757.44 points before trading was suspended for the second time on Monday afternoon, while the dollar-denominated RTS free fell 15 per cent to below the 1,000-point mark to as low as
902.37 points.