Two powerful truck bombs ripped through the Chechen government headquarters in the regional capital Grozny on Friday, killing at least 25 people, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. NTV television showed stunned and bleeding people stumbling out of the rubble of the administration building, one of the few in the war-shattered Chechen capital to have been completely renovated. Others were dragged by their hands and feet, while bloodied soldiers tried to establish order.

A crater nearly 20 feet in diameter yawned in front of the building, It was the biggest Chechen nationalist attack since militants seized a Moscow theater in October, taking some 800 people hostage. All 41 attackers were killed, as were 129 of the hostages, all but two of whom succumbed to the gas used to incapacitate the assailants.

The last large attack in Grozny occurred in September, when a bus was blown up on a land mine. Nineteen people were killed.

The Russian government has insisted that Chechnya  is returning to normal, and that the military campaign there is nearly complete.

But the nationalists have continued to unleash small-scale attacks on Russian troops and Chechens perceived to be collaborating with them, as well as the occasional larger explosion of military trucks, police stations and other symbols of Russian authority. nationalists have also shot down several military helicopters this year, including one in which at least 119 people perished.

Russia Says 28 Nationalists Lay Down Arms in Chechnya

Twenty-eight Chechen nationalist laid down their arms and surrendered to Russian forces on Wednesday, in a move pro-Kremlin Chechen officials said was proof that Moscow's strategy to end the decade-long conflict is working.

In a mass surrender officials said has not been seen in months, the militants who have fought under Chechnya's fugitive leader Aslan Maskhadov handed in their weapons before Russian commanders at a special ceremony in the capital Grozny.

"The surrender is the result of (our) incessant negotiations with Chechen field commanders who want to end the military campaign," said Shamsail Saraliyev, spokesman for Akhmad Kadyrov, head of Chechnya's Kremlin-installed administration.

Moscow says the turbulent province is now largely under control and the military phase of its "anti-terrorism" operation over. But its 80,000 troops suffer almost daily losses from nationalist attacks.

Russian news agencies reported Chechnya's head of the main pro-Kremlin party was shot dead in Grozny on Wednesday and two Russian policemen were killed in a clash with nationalists .

European states have urged Moscow to thrash out a political solution to the conflict with Maskhadov and other nationalist leaders, but Russian President Vladimir Putin  has opted instead to push a solution involving only Chechens who will accept Russian rule.

Saraliyev said Wednesday's surrender could prompt other nationalists to give up the fight and help restore stability in the predominantly Muslim province.

"It's not the first time that they have come to us. It's been a long process, that began in 1999 (when Russia launched its second post-Soviet campaign in Chechnya), and I believe over a hundred militants have put down their arms this way," Saraliyev said.

"These people do understand the war is meaningless after all." Moscow officials say there are only around 1,000 fighters still active in the province.

PHOTO CAPTION

Chechen refugees Hamzat Zubirayev, left, and his five-year-old son Aslan take apart their tent while preparing to leave the Bella refugee camp near Sleptsovskaya, Ingushetia, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2002. At Bella, in the Ingushetia region next to Chechnya , the population has fallen by a third in recent months, to about 4,000 amid threats it will soon be closed. Tens of thousands of Chechens are afraid to return to their homeland, where air strikes, artillery barrages and nationalist attacks break out daily, but are under pressure to leave their camps. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)