PARTIAL WITHDRAWAL FROM CHECHNYA DOES NOT SIGNAL END TO ANTI-TERRORIST OPERATION








MOSCOW, 2 March. /Corr. RIA Novosti/.


	Following a meeting of the Russian Security Council in the Kremlin, Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov announced that a partial withdrawal of federal forces from Chechnya would not signal an end to the anti-terrorist operation in the republic.


	The issue of reducing the number of troops conducting the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus was discussed at the meeting.


	Ivanov stressed that the operation would be continued "no less intensively, but with the use of different means." According to him, greater attention would now be paid to special operations. Ivanov reported that subdivisions involved in search operations and the neutralisation of criminals would be re-inforced.