A senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that there is firm evidence showing that radical Islamic organizations, including Al-Qaida, are financing Chechen militants,Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Anatoly Kulikov, deputy chairman of the security committee of the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament, also said many terrorists operating in Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya come from the Middle East, Europe and North America.

However, Western countries still refrain from branding Chechen terrorism as a branch of international terrorist networks, Kulikovsaid, complaining that "none of our partners in the international anti-terrorist coalition have extradited to Russia the criminals who have stained their hands with the blood of hundreds of innocent people."

He urged the West to discard the erroneous belief that regionaland international terrorists act on parallel agendas, saying "theyare just elements of a single chain, and the situation in Chechnyaproves it."

"Chechnya has turned into a stumbling block on the way to closer cooperation between Russia and the West," Kulikov said, adding that the West's position on the Chechen issue exerts a crucial impact on Russia's role in the international anti-terrorist coalition and Russian relations with the West.

Nikolai Patrushev, director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), said early this month that at least 10 members of Al-Qaida are currently operating in the restive North Caucasus region which comprises several Russian republics including Chechnya and North Ossetia, the site of the bloody school hostage-taking terrorist attack that claimed lives of over 330 people lastmonth.

Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov announced Tuesday that the government is to allocate three billion rubles (nearly 103 millionUS dollars) this year for urgent anti-terrorism measures, Interfaxnews agency reported.

Fradkov chaired a meeting of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Commission, which put forward recommendations on protecting industrial, energy and scientific sites from terrorist attack.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday appointed Anatoly Safonov, a former FSB officer, to be his envoy in charge of the fight against terrorism and trans-border crime, according to Interfax.

Source: Xinhua