There are still 50,000 Chechen refugees in Ingushetia

Russia had previously announced a 1 October deadline, but most of the 5,000 refugees refused to leave.

Russian authorities want them to return as a sign that life is getting back to normal in Chechnya after the war.

But refugees say they have nowhere to return to, and there is still fighting, murders, disappearances and rapes.

Russia's Chechen affairs minister Stanislav Ilyasov told President Vladimir Putin, in full view of television cameras on Friday, that "they would fulfil his order by 1 March".

Ingush denial

He said there were about 50,000 Chechen refugees in neighbouring Ingushetia now, compared with 750,000 three years ago.

Only about 5,000 of them lived in camps, the rest in temporary settlements and the private sector.

About 100 families were returning to Chechnya every day, but half of the refugees intend to remain in Ingushetia, Mr Ilyasov said.

Ingush authorities denied there was any deadline for closing the camps.

An Ingush spokesman said the return of refugees would be an exclusively voluntary process.

But Said Dibiyev, press secretary of Chechnya's State Council, told Interfax news agency: "After 1 March there should not be a single tent remaining on the territory of Ingushetia."

Mr Putin launched Russia's second war in Chechnya in October 1999 while he was prime minister and public support for the campaign helped him win presidential elections the next year.