More than 180 air sorties have been flown by Russian warplanes as Moscow seeks to regain the momentum it lost during successful rebel counter-attacks last week.

Reports have also emerged of heavy civilian casualties as Russian forces bomb the Chechen capital Grozny and fighting is reported in and around the city.

Local people said that 30 civilians were killed when Russian forces stormed the western suburb of Khankala, without giving the non-combatants time to flee.

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Russian news agencies said Grozny and mountain villages in the southern part of the rebel republic had borne the brunt of the latest air and artillery attacks.

"After losing a third of their men, the bandits were forced to retreat into Grozny, leaving on the battlefield dead bodies, as well as a lot of weapons and ammunition."

Chechen fighters remain defiant. A Chechen news website, Kavkaz-Tsentr, says that Grozny is under the full control of the rebels.

"Grozny is an ideal place for street fighting; it is possible to defend it for years," Khizir Khachulayev, a rebel commander, said. "Russian soldiers will find their death here."

The BBC's correspondent in Moscow, William Horsley, said although Russian troops conducted house-to-house searches in many lowland towns and villages, the rebels had disappeared into the mountains.

'Help Chechen civilians'

A senior Russian human rights official has criticised the Russian army's treatment of Chechnya's civilian population.

Human rights commissioner Oleg Mironov told acting President Vladimir Putin that aid must be sent urgently to civilians affected by the crisis, and recommended new laws on assisting civilians caught in such conflicts.

Officials in neighbouring Ingushetia said the border had reopened to Chechen refugees on Saturday.

Moscow had earlier closed the border to Chechen men aged 10 to 60, fearful that rebel fighters were escaping. No explanation was given for lifting the restriction.

In Shali, a village south-east of Grozny where the recent fighting was fiercest, civilians told Reuters news agency that they had become the main victims of the war.

"When will this war end? We are peaceful people, we are not bandits. We have had to live in the cellar for the past four days, not daring to go out," said Aset Mustayeva, 57.

Umar Khadjiev, 60, said the latest clashes had left many civilians wounded. "There are many injured here, including children, but we have no doctors, no Red Cross."

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