Pro-Moscow officials in Russia's restive Chechnya region said yesterday their forces had killed a separatist cleric who had held the title of rebel leader for more than a year.

Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov told reporters that Abdul-Khalim Saidulayev was killed in Argun, 30 km east of the regional capital Grozny, after one of his aides sold information about his whereabouts to authorities.

Kadyrov said the hunt for Saidulayev in Argun, in which pro-Moscow Chechen forces joined units of the FSB federal security service, was part of a wider search for rebel leaders currently under way across the region. Russian news agencies quoted FSB head Nikolai Patrushev as confirming the killing of Saidulayev. Patrushev said one policemen and one FSB officer died during the operation.

A previously unknown Argun mullah, Saidulayev was named rebel leader in March 2005, replacing the charismatic Aslan Maskhadov when he was killed by Russian troops.

Most analysts believe Saidulayev was a figurehead, installed as a compromise between two leading separatist warlords - Shamil Basayev and Doku Umarov.

Saidulayev said earlier this month that Umarov would succeed him. The Russians accuse both Umarov and Basayev of banditry and attacks on civilians.