Mr Putin stressed that rescuing and securing the safety of the greatest possible number of hostages were the principle goals of the police and the secret service in planning their actions.
He said that the first information offered by the spokesmen for the terrorists who had taken hostages in Moscow the previous night had come from abroad as more proof that the attack had been arranged by overseas terrorist centres.
As the President said, no one doubted that it was the people who had been terrorising Chechnya for years that were now calling to stop the warfare.