1 A limited cease-fire between Russia and Chechen rebels began Tuesday, with both sides agreeing to halt the use of heavy artillery.
2 Many were skeptical that the latest truce would hold, but early reports indicated that the war zone was quiet. Russian helicopter gunships continued to fly over the region from their base in Beslan, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Grozny.
3 In Moscow, a top Russian commander, Lt. Gen. Lev Rokhlin, was among those predicting that peace talks would ultimately fail. 'It is impossible to reach agreement with them because their hands are stained with blood,' he told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
4 Vladimir Nikanorov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said the cease-fire pact was reached in five hours of talks Monday between the commander of Russian troops in Chechnya, Col. Gen. Anatoly Kulikov, and Aslan Maskhadov, the chief of separatist Chechen forces.
5 'The parties have reached an agreement to stop fighting with heavy artillery starting tomorrow,' Nikanorov said in Moscow.
6 But it was not immediately clear whether Chechen fighters, many of whom fight on their own, would honor a cease-fire agreement. Other cease-fire agreements in December and January collapsed within hours.
7 Maskhadov, in an interview with Moscow's Ostankino television Monday night, said he hoped both sides would honor the truce.
8 'To effect a complete cease-fire will require further work,' he said. 'But, if I were to give my word that there won't be any more shooting anywhere, it would be just empty talk.'
9 The talks were held at an airport near the village of Sleptsovsk in neighboring Ingushetia, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Grozny. Ingushetian Vice President Boris Agapov also attended the meeting as an observer.
10 Agapov, speaking later to reporters, said the agreement was 'to stop all military action and guarantee to stop using air forces, heavy artillery and grenade launchers.'
11 The sides also agreed in principle to work out a mechanism for exchanging bodies and prisoners of war, he said. Details will be worked out Wednesday when the talks resume.
12 'It was the first serious meeting on a very high level,' Agapov said. He described the talks as 'complicated,' but also 'businesslike and calm.'
13 At one point, he said, the negotiators rose and drank a toast to all the dead on both sides.
14 The agreement came amid continued fighting in the capital, Grozny, where artillery fire could still be heard in the southern parts of the city on Monday.
15 In the northern part of the city, secured by the Russians, a few civilians were on the streets patrolled everywhere by soldiers on foot and on tanks, trucks and armored personnel carriers.
16 Occasional small-arms fire rang out, and residents and soldiers said sniper fire increased signficantly throughout the city at night.
17 ITAR-Tass said as soon as the agreement was reached, Kulikov ordered his troops to immediately cease heavy-artillery fire on Chechen targets.
18 The news agency quoted Maskhadov as saying he had been authorized by Dudayev to confine the talks 'only to military issues,' and not to discuss political aspects of the conflict.
19 Russia sent up to 40,000 troops into the republic on Dec. 11 to crush Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev's drive for independence from Russia.
20 The war has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands of Chechens from their homes. The Chechen capital has been largely destroyed and surrounding villages have been heavily damaged in Russian bombardments.
21 In recent days, as Russian forces consolidated their grip on Grozny, the fighting has spread to villages east and west of the capital.
22 The Russian government press service said Chechen fighters continued to leave the capital for Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Grozny, which is in rebel hands.

A limited cease - fire between Russia and Chechen rebels began Tuesday , with both sides agreeing to halt the use of heavy artillery .
both sides agreeing to halt
Why did both sides agree to halt? 