Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the government is prepared to hold talks with all forces in Chechnya, except terrorists and separatists.

"There can be no dialogue with those who wanted to fight and who made war a way of earning money. We shall fight against them,

throw them in prisons and destroy them," the Russian president told journalists from leading Turkish media outlets following an interview with a Turkish television company.

"I think Turkey understands this better than many other countries," Putin said.

Putin's remarks came on the same day when a group of armed men seized a school in Russia's North Ossetia republic Wednesday morning, taking some 400 people hostage.

Ismel Shaov, North Ossetian Interior Ministry spokesman, confirmed that a school in the town of Beslan has been seized by the gunmen.

"According to our information, it was seized by 17 terrorists, including men and women. They are wearing suicide-bomber belts," Shaov was quoted by Interfax as saying.

"The terrorists have contacted us and said that they will put forward some demands in the near future," he said.

Shaov said the school was seized shortly after the ceremony marking the beginning of the new academic year had been completed and the students had entered the school.

Vladimir Yakovlev, Russian presidential envoy to the South Federal District, also confirmed the incident.

"Police and interior troop units are arriving at the school at the moment. The exact number of parents and students who were taken hostage is not known yet. A shootout is in progress in the area," Yakovlev was quoted by Interfax as saying.

A source with the Interior Ministry's central branch for the South Federal District told Interfax that one of the guerrillas was killed in the shootout.

Interfax quoted a spokesman of the headquarters for freeing the hostages as saying that the gunmen had threatened to detonate the belts explosives if the police carry out rescue efforts.

The spokesman also noted that at least 15 terrorists are holding some 120 schoolchildren in a gymnasium.

North Ossetia is located in southern Russia, bordering the rebellious republic of Chechnya. The school's students are aged between seven and 17 and they were attending the first day of their new academic year.

Also on Wednesday, police evacuated some 100 people from Chechnya's representative office building in central Moscow following threats against it, Interfax cited a Moscow law enforcement source as reporting.

An anonymous person called the representative office, stationed in the Novy Arbat street, earlier in the day saying "our mothers are weeping. Your mothers will also weep soon," and hung up.

Russia has suffered a series of terrorist attacks over the past week.

On Tuesday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside a subway station northeast of downtown Moscow, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 50 others.

On Aug. 24, two Russian passenger airliners crashed almost simultaneously, killing 90 people on board. Investigators said traces of explosive have been found on the wreckage of the two planes.

Putin has said an al-Qaeda link to the crashes of the two Russian airliners confirms a connection between Chechen rebels and international terrorism.

An Islamist group has claimed responsibility for both the airliner crashes and Tuesday's suicide bombing.

On Sunday, the Kremlin-backed candidate Alu Alkhanov registered a landslide victory in the presidential election in Russia's war-torn Chechen republic.

Source: Xinhua