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In his opening address, Mr Putin said it was the first meeting in such a format. All those present had been working hard in their departments, he said. The President asked each participant to state his views on the situation and the results achieved, and to make recommendations.

The participants discussed the global situation after the terrorist attacks in the United States, and the issues to come on the agenda of Mr Putin’s upcoming meeting with US President George W. Bush in Shanghai.

Each minister told Mr Putin what he had done in the preceding week to enhance national security.

In particular, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov talked about the situation in the Armed Forces and the latest safety measures in the Tajikistan-stationed 201st Division and elsewhere.

The situation in Chechnya was a special item on the agenda. Insurgents became more active within the preceding week, with several attacks and terrorist acts. Mr Ivanov saw here a link with terrorist attacks on the USA. According to him, militants meant to distract Russia’s attention and thus reduce its participation in international anti-terrorist efforts.

The meeting lasted more than six hours, during which Mr Putin had a one hour telephone conversation with the US President, after which the meeting resumed.

Mr Putin had his first emergency meeting with defence and law enforcement ministers in the Kremlin, a few hours after terrorist attackson September 11 on the USA. The Russian leadership urgently started consultations with Western and CIS countries.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov went to the United States, accompanied by Yury Baluyevsky, First Deputy Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff. Vladimir Rushailo, secretary of the Security Council, made a tour of Central Asian countries on Mr Putin’s instructions. Nikolai Patrushev, director of the Federal Security Service held consultations with North Caucasian law enforcement bodies. Anatoly Kvashnin, Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, visited Tajikistan, where he had met with a spokesman of the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan—a group actively opposed to the Taliban regime for several preceding years.