He claimed some 2,000 Chechen fighters "had completely withdrawn from the city". The Chechen rebels announced yesterday they had evacuated Grozny after two months of some of the heaviest fighting seen in Europe since the Second World War. Chechen rebel leaders said they had pulled their forces out of the city and fought their way through the Russian lines. The Chechen rebels announced yesterday they had evacuated Grozny after two months of some of the heaviest fighting seen in Europe since the Second World War. Refugees trying to flee Chechnya will not be permitted to enter the Stavropol region, and regional police will carefully check the identities of those already living in the region.A Stavropol government spokesman said that the decision was made because the authorities could no longer cope with the expense of caring for refugees. The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that some 400,000 Chechens had settled in the region since the early 1990s, and that the federal government had provided very little aid to help support them.. The Council for Public and Economic Security in the nearby Stavropol region secured their freedom with the help of Chechen elders who established where the soldiers were being held, said council spokesman Viktor Medyanik.He did not say whether any ransom was paid for their release.Hundreds of people, including many Russian soldiers, have been taken hostage by armed gangs in and around Chechnya over the past few years and many of the captives are held for ransom.The Stavropol region closed its border with Chechnya last week on the orders of regional Gov Alexander Chernogorov. Two Russian soldiers who were held captive for more than four months in the breakaway republic of Chechnya have been released.

Two Russian soldiers who were held captive for more than four months in the breakaway republic of Chechnya have been released. The soldiers had been reported missing from their unit, stationed in the Ingushetia region bordering on Chechnya, 4 1/2 months ago. As one official put it "Haider's comments really turned the heat up and gave the thing momentum".. During frenetic phone diplomacy Spain, Sweden and Greece took a hard line against the imminent arrival in government of Jörg Haider's Freedom Party.But it was Jacques Chirac, the French President, and Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, who made the declaration happen. The earliest international contacts took place in Stockholm nearly a week ago when a clutch of EU leaders met for a conference to mark the Holocaust.Tony Blair was not present, but seven European premiers were, and the informal consensus was for a stern message to Austria.Belgium took the initiative, its premier Guy Verhofstadt, pressing for a special EU foreign ministers meeting before writing a letter to Antonio Guterres, Prime Minister of Portugal which holds the EU presidency.When Mr Haider publicly slated his critics over the weekend - branding Mr Chirac a megalomaniac and accusing Belgium of corruption - he ignited the fuse. This is used mainly in the run-up to summits, but over the weekend it came into its own. "Should this occur we would examine carefully the range and depth of our bilateral relationship, and consider similar steps to those identified by the Europeans."Europe's prime ministers have a special communications network, known as PrimeNet, which links national capitals on what diplomats call the "red telephone".

"I am used to reading communiqués condemning events in Indonesia, Africa or in Chechnya," said one EU diplomat, "but this took me aback: the language was in a different league."As if this were not enough the United States took the rare step of declaring an interest in the internal politics of a friendly nation, threatening to join Europe in isolating Austria."The entry of the Freedom Party in the Austrian government would affect our bilateral relationship," US National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said in Washington. France, Belgium and Germany, a trio of countries sensitive to the rise of the far right, drove the telephone diplomacy which has propelled Austria to the edge of international isolation, it emerged yesterday. By-passing the European Commission, Europe's foreign ministries and most of the continent's top diplomats, the heads of government put together a declaration so hard-hitting that it shocked many EU officials. France, Belgium and Germany, a trio of countries sensitive to the rise of the far right, drove the telephone diplomacy which has propelled Austria to the edge of international isolation, it emerged yesterday. President Klestil is not alone in the Austrian political establishment to fear that history might be about to repeat itself.. The controversy, which most Austrians found unfair, merely helped to boost support for a little-known provincial politician named Jörg Haider. Mr Waldheim, the former UN secretary general who was President between 1986 and 1992, was exposed for lying about his time in the armed forces of the Third Reich. He was formally banned from visiting the US, and informally shunned by the rest of the world.

"The President repeated that he will wait for the results of current discussions between the Freedom Party and the People's Party and then hold further talks on the formation of a government." a statement issued on behalf of President Thomas Klestil said.Postwar Austria weathered international isolation once before, during the tenure of President Kurt Waldheim. "We absolutely reject the possibility of accepting that foreigners can make decisions over us," Mr Fasslabend said."We must now keep a cool head but it must be totally beyond dispute that Austria can in no way yield to this pressure from abroad."Austria's head of state again refused to bless the coalition deal. "Austria must keep its nerve and show strength in the face of unjust accusations," he said. Mr Schüssel did try to soften his defiant message with a pledge that "Austria will never leave the path of European integration".A harsher tone was struck by his conservative colleague, the outgoing Defence Minister, Werner Fasslabend. Hannes Swoboda, the leader of Austria's Social Democrats in the European Parliament, accused Mr Schüssel of turning the country into a "banana republic".Mr Schüssel, visibly shocked on Monday night by the European leaders' decision, was unbowed yesterday, accusing Austria's partners of violating the spirit of the EU treaty they are claiming to uphold.

Austria's left has denounced Mr Haider's rise to power as an abomination, while the right angrily rebutted "meddling" in the country's affairs.Peter Kostelka, the Social Democrats' leader, called on Mr Schüssel to step down for his part in precipitating Austria's "greatest foreign policy débâcle since 1945"."[Mr Schüssel] must have known very well what was coming and he doesn't seem to have cared," he said. More money is to be spent on integrating immigrants, and, to help foreign children to learn German, no more than one- third of school classes will beallowed to be made up of non-German speakers.The breakthrough, reached after a week of negotiations, failed to mask the schisms inAustrian society as it faces international isolation. The new government will continue to recognise the right of political refugees to asylum. Mr Haider's Freedom Party scooped 27 per cent of the votes in last October's elections with the help of xenophobic campaign slogans.The other 14 states in the EU announced on Monday that they would refuse all bilateral contacts if Mr Haider's party joined the government.The programme unveiled last night is a moderate one, at least by the standards of Mr Haider, who once praised the "orderly employment policies" of the Nazis and sought to turn immigrants into scapegoats for Austria's social ills.