Rice meets editors, son of slain Russian journalist

MOSCOW, Oct 21 (Reuters) U S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today met the editors and son of Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya, a harsh critic of President Vladimir Putin gunned down this month by unknown assailants.

Rice, a Russian speaker, invited the editors of Novaya Gazeta and the murdered journalist's son, Ilya Politkovsky, to her Moscow hotel, where she hailed the reporter's courage.

Politkovskaya's death was condemned worldwide and Rice was expected to raise the case in talks later with Putin, who is accused by Western countries of undermining press freedoms.

''Obviously the fate of journalists in Russia is a major concern,'' Rice told reporters travelling with her to Moscow from Beijing.

She said Politkovskaya was a particularly well-known and respected journalist and her newspaper Novaya Gazeta was one of the most independent voices in Russia.

Investigators are still looking for clues to the contract-style killing of the 48-year-old journalist, who was found dead in a lift at her Moscow apartment block.

Putin vowed to hunt down Politkovskaya's killers and suggested that they were bent on creating a world-wide wave of anti-Russian sentiment.

He said the murder caused more harm to Russia than any article she had written, though he added that Politkovskaya had ''minimal influence'' on public opinion in a country where most information is conveyed by state-controlled television.

After the meeting, editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov gave Rice several gifts, including copies of Novaya Gazeta dedicated to Politkovskaya, and a number of books.

The dead reporter's 28-year-old son said after Rice left that he had agreed with her comments about his mother's courage and the tragedy of her loss.

REUTERS AB BS2057