MOSCOW. Aug 7: Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin on Saturday ordered security chiefs to restore order along Russia's troubled border with rebel Chechnya after suspected Islamic militants seized two Russian villages, reports said, reports AFP.

Chief of Staff General Anatoly Kvashnin and Interior Ministry forces chief Vyacheslav Ovchinikov were told to take prompt steps to "normalise the situation on the Chechen-Dagestan border." a senior official said.

Stepashin ordered them to use "maximum efficiency" to resolve the situation, Alexander Mikhailov, head of the government information service, quoted the premier as saying, Interfax reported.

The prime minister, currently on tour in the Volga region east of Moscow, discussed the security situation with

Dagestani leader Magomed all Magomedov by telephone.

In Moscow. Chechnya's official representative Mayerbek Vachagayev said "the Chechen authorities do not finance (the insurgents) or have any sort of contact with them." ITAR-TASS reported.

Dagestan's Interior Minister Adilgerey Magomedtagirov meanwhile summoned officials to an emergency meeting to discuss the development, ministry spokesman Abdulmanap Musayev told Echo Moscow radio.

Some 200-300 Islamic militants crossed from Chechnya around 7:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) to seize control of the villages of Ansalta and Rakhata. he said. Other reports put the number at 500.

The group was "digging trenches around the villages" he said, "but so far there has been no contact between the fighters

and the villagers or the police."

The security forces were currently ass -sing the size and strength of the armed group but had enough forces in tne zone to contain the situation. Musayev said.

Interfax said a battalion of interior ministry troops and another from the defence ministry. comprising some 1,000 men, were on station in the troubled zone.

Dagestan and the entire northern Caucasus region has been in turmoil since the 21-month Chechen war of independence from Moscow erupted in December 1994.

The war ended in August 1996 with a ceasefire and a humiliating withdrawal by Russian forces, but left neighbouring republics in the region weak and prone to a wave of hostagetaking from crime gangs based in Chechnya.