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The head of state urged the international community to take effective measures to solve the Kosovo crisis. The President likened the current situation in the region to that in Chechnya after 1996. In Kosovo there is a growing extremist threat which is spilling across the border of the territory, Mr Putin stressed.

The President indicated that after the Yugoslav army withdrawal, and despite the international military presence, a power vacuum has appeared and is quickly being filled by extremists. The Russian head of state said that KFOR troops could not counter extremists effectively, which has been confirmed by reliable facts. There have been reports almost every day from Kosovo itself and the buffer zone on the border between the territory and southern Serbia of roadside bombs, shootings, attacks on convoys, including convoys escorted by KFOR troops, abductions and killings committed by separatists.

Mr Putin informed the Cabinet about his telephone conversation with President Boris Trajkovski of Macedonia. During their conversation the two leaders discussed the difficult situation in the Balkans and the prospects for its peaceful resolution.