This too would reduce Russia's scope for meddling in the Caucasus, but last week's murder of the Armenian Prime Minister and other top officials makes it unclear whether it will be signed in Istanbul, as had been hoped.. He was an Australian with Scottish blood and a love of wailing music. JOHN CORY was wearing a kilt and carrying a set of bagpipes, so perhaps it wasn't surprising that he was keen on the Queen. The new link could be ready within six to eight months, giving Russia a much stronger hand in the geo-political jockeying over the vast potential energy riches of the Caspian and Central Asia.But Chechen insurgents have warned they would sabotage it even before it started operations - a threat not being taken lightly given that it was Chechen incursions into Dagestan last summer that provoked the first instalment of the new conflict.The US is also leaning hard on Armenia and Azerbaijan to announce a settlement of their 11-year dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Doubts have also long been expressed over whether Caspian output by the BP-Amoco- led consortium, which is due to build the pipeline, was enough to justify the $2.4bn cost, when an existing pipeline from Baku to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk could be expanded at much less cost.Now however the financial difficulties have been largely cleared up, and the fighting in Chechnya has cast a long shadow over the Novorossiysk pipeline, which runs directly through the heavily bombarded Chechen capital of Grozny.In a bid to allay these doubts and head off the Azerbaijan to Turkey route, Moscow has promised to build a new segment of pipeline through the republic of Dagestan, bypassing Chechnya completely. Industry experts say that Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan will probably sign an agreement at this month's 54-nation European security summit in Istanbul, for the new pipeline running from the Azeri capital Baku through Georgia and then south-west to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The long-envisaged scheme has the strong backing of Washington, which sees it both as a major boost for Ankara, the most important US strategic ally in the region, and as a means of shifting both Georgia and Azerbaijan further from Russia's sphere of influence and into the Western orbit.But the project has been held up by arguments over financing. All Russians are sick of the fact that Russia is humiliated, insulted and asking for hand outs."We have it bad today but let us be patient and tomorrow will come and it will better We will go with Putin and tomorrow will come." (Reuters). MOSCOW'S SAVAGE war in Chechnya is making more likely an early deal for a pipeline to carry Caspian oil to the West, bypassing the unstable northern Caucasus region of Russia. But for myself, I would say that I would tear off my epaulettes and go and do something in civilian life."Vladimir Vladimirovich [Mr Putin] is today a symbol behind which many people march I am in the first rank, without a doubt.

Mr Manchigov said: "When I left Zakan two days ago we drove past it and I could see APCs [Armoured Personnel Carriers] parked in the hospital courtyard."He believes the patients have fled into the countryside, but nobody knows where they have gone.COMMANDER DECRIES ANY ORDER TO STOP ADVANCEONE OF the commanders leading Russia's offensive in Chechnya said yesterday that he would resign if ordered to halt his advance.Major-General Vladimir Shamanov, commander of western Russian forces in the North Caucasus, also told Russian television that he supported Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the man to lead Russia in the future.General Shamanov said: "The army will fulfil its orders, no one should doubt this. Asked why soldiers should have shot the doctor, Mr Manchigov pointed to his shattered leg and said wryly: "Why do they do anything. I'm not a fighter also and look what they did to me."Usually the funeral of a popular local figure like the doctor would be well attended in Chechnya. In this case, with the local cemetery under shellfire, he was hurriedly buried at night.The hospital itself has been taken over by the Russian army. We had information that fighters were in the area'."It is possible that the doctor died at the hands of nervous soldiers.