The body of Russia's Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov has been examined in Moscow by experts from the Defense Ministry as part of the identification procedure, the Interfax news agency reported Friday.

"The armed forces' senior forensic expert performed an autopsy on the Chechen separatist leader's body on Thursday, and a molecular analysis has given a 97 percent confirmation that the body is that of Aslan Maskhadov," the ministry's chief medical official Lieut General Igor Bykov told a news conference on Friday.

"In addition, a wide range of genetic tests will take place to fully confirm that it was Maskhadov's body," he said, adding that as a rule, genetic analyses take up to 14 days.

According to a security source, Maskahdov's body had been kept in Rostov-on-Don before a decision was made later to send it to Moscow for examinations.

Maskhadov was killed Tuesday in the Chechen village of Tolstoy-Yurt during a special operation by troops of the Federal Security Service (FSB) which had placed a 10-million-US dollar bounty on him after the Beslan school besiege last September.

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the work of the FSB and instructed its director Nikolai Patrushev to conduct an extra check to make sure the body had been identified correctly.

Maskhadov's body will be returned to Chechnya after all tests are complete and, under law, the separatist leader will be buried in an unmarked grave, Interfax said.

Source: Xinhua