THE TALKS:

The rebels now demand that Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who diffused a similar situation last June, take part in the negotiations. Unlike that crisis, Moscow this time has so far refused to enter talks. Russian President Boris Yeltsin is taking a hard-line approach. In Paris to attend the funeral of Francois Mitterrand, Yeltsin said he would agree to the rebel demand that Russian troops leave Chechnya, but only after the rebels agree to disarm. This essentially has been the Russian position for several months and a chief sticking point when peace talks collapsed last year.