Russia's anti-terrorist unit warns of attack

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) Russia today said it had received information from foreign sources which suggested terrorists were planning to strike a Russian public transport system.

News agencies quoted the boss of Russia's FSB spy service and head of the government's anti-terror committee, Nikolai Patrushev, telling all citizens and officials to be on high alert.

''The Federal Anti-Terrorist Committee has received information from foreign partners, which is now being checked, on a possible terrorist attack on transport systems and the metro,'' Patrushev said through Russian news agencies.

He said he had ordered search operations and preventative action.

Chechen separatists have fought two wars against Russia since 1994. In the past few years, they have attacked Moscow's metro and concert venues and taken hundreds of prisoners in a theatre siege in the centre of Russia's capital and at a school in Beslan, in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia.

Over 300 people, mainly children, died in the 2004 Beslan siege after Russian forces stormed the school.

REUTERS PKS BST0050