Russia wants new sanctions on Taleban over Chechnya
12:03 p.m. Jan 17, 2000 Eastern

MOSCOW, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Russia on Monday urged further U.N. sanctions against Afghanistan's ruling Taleban Islamic movement for granting diplomatic ``recognition'' to Moscow's rebel republic of Chechnya.

Mullah Mohammad Omar, supreme leader of the Taleban which is itself struggling for international acceptance, formally recognised Chechnya on Sunday in talks with a Chechen delegation in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar.

Russia's Foreign Ministry branded the recognition as illegitimate because the United Nations has not recognised the Taleban as Afghanistan's government. It said the move exposed close ties between extremists in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

``This statement, issued by an illegitimate regime which has not been recognised by the world community and against which U.N. sanctions have been introduced for support of international terrorism, provides new evidence of an alliance between Chechen terrorists and militant religious extremism,'' the ministry said.

Russia says the Chechen rebels, who are fighting for independence from Moscow, are terrorists and says their supporters include Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden, sought by Washington for bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa.

The Foreign Ministry said in its statement that the Taleban's recognition of Chechnya justified tightening sanctions slapped on Kabul in November 1999 by the United Nations.

``Open support extended by the Taleban to terrorists acting in one of the republics of the Russian Federation gives firm grounds for raising the issue of hardening sanctions,'' it said.

Moscow sent troops into Chechnya in September in its second military attempt to bring the rebel territory to heel.

It is struggling to persuade the international community that its military offensive is aimed at crushing international terrorism in Chechnya. Western and Moslem countries say innocent civilians are suffering too much as a result of the campaign.

The Taleban, which controls about 90 percent of Afghanistan, accuses Russia of helping the opposition alliance that holds the remainder of the country, which Moscow occupied in the 1980s under the Soviet Union.