MOSCOW - A total of 150 Russian army soldiers were killed in Chechnya in 2004, less than a third of the number who died in the previous year, a senior defence ministry official told the Ria-Novosti new agency.
There were 499 soldiers killed in 2001 and 480 between 2002 and 2003, said Alexander Belooussov, a deputy minister. The figures did not include casualties among interior ministry troops, who are also stationed in the troubled southern republic.
The reduction in the number of deaths was made possible by the replacement of army conscripts with career soldiers, the official said.
"This has led to an improvement in the execution of military missions and a reduction in the loss of soldiers," Belooussov said.
Russian Defence Minister Serguei Ivanov said earlier this month that 30,000 soldiers were stationed in Chechnya, in addition to 50,000 troops from the Interior Ministry and the Russian secret service (FSB).
The leader of the Chechen rebels, Aslan Maskhadov, was killed by Russian forces on March 8 in a village north of Chechnya's capital Grozny.
However Chechen rebel forces have vowed to continue their armed struggle.
Maskhadov, who was elected Chechnya's president in January 1997, was the only major rebel chief who advocated negotiations to end the current war in Chechnya, which Moscow launched in October 1999.
03/15/2005 11:43 GMT