President Clinton ruled out the imposing of US sanctions on Russia because of its actions in Chechnya affecting the civilian population.
He said that two-thirds of US aid to Russia was to assist in the de-nuclearisation of its weapons and it was not in US interests to stop such aid. The rest of US aid was for funding democracy in Russia and again it would not be in US interests to end that.
Mr Clinton said Russia was already paying a "heavy price" for its actions in Chechnya. Its present strategy was hurting civilians, and making the refugee problem worse would "further alienate the global community" and turn away investment that Russia badly needed.
According to the Russian news agency, Interfax, the US yesterday informed Russia that it was suspending plans to establish a new food-aid programme.
West European countries kept up their threats of economic sanctions against Russia yesterday even though Moscow appeared to back away from a controversial ultimatum to Chechens to leave their besieged capital or die.
France reiterated warnings that an EU summit in Helsinki later this week could take steps against Russia because of the heavy civilian toll it has caused in its three-month-old campaign against Islamic rebels. And German government sources linked a delay in International Monetary Fund loans to Moscow with the situation in Chechnya and said Berlin could not support any such aid while the bloodshed continued.
Britain said a Group of Eight foreign ministers' meeting planned for next week must discuss Russian action in Chechnya as its top priority.
Russia's military denied telling civilians in the Chechen capital Grozny - in air-dropped leaflets that caused outrage in the West - to flee the city by Saturday or face death. It said the ultimatum had been aimed only at rebel fighters.
In Paris, President Chirac's spokeswoman, Ms Catherine Colonna, said that at their EU Helsinki summit "the 15 nations will very likely take a stance and one cannot rule out the possibility that they will also take measures".
European officials spoke earlier this week of possibly freezing research and technical assistance accords due to be signed with Russia.
The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema, also said Europe might have to consider some form of economic pressure against Russia over Chechnya.
"It is obvious that Europe . . . has many possibilities to exercise strong pressure on Russia. This pressure can be exercised with all means at our disposal, including economic pressure," he told Italian radio.
The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, who raised the possibility of sanctions on Tuesday, said yesterday that Russia appeared to have heeded Western warnings.
"I welcome the fact that we really have obviously been understood and heard in Moscow. But we need now to try and take this further," Mr Cook told BBC television.
Germany, Russia's largest foreign creditor, regarded any release of international loans to Moscow as unlikely while the Chechnya conflict continued to intensify, German government sources said.
"It is hard to see how any cash can flow to Russia in the current situation," a source said, adding Germany could not support such aid from any international body.
The NATO Secretary General, Mr George Robertson, said yesterday in Rome that Russian threats against civilians in Chechnya were "simply unacceptable".
"This conflict is not simply the property of Russia," Mr Robertson told a news conference after talks with the Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini. "Its consequences go well beyond the borders of Russia."
Mr Robertson was in Rome after meetings with the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, and Mr Clinton.
There was a "military track" to the conflict in Russia's breakaway republic but Moscow must also pursue a "political track," Mr Robertson said.
Georgian officials said yesterday they had detained and deported 12 foreigners, including one from France and one from Northern Ireland, trying to cross illegally into the region of Chechnya.
"Along with the border guards, we have detained 12 people in the Pankissk gorge and recommended they leave the territory of Georgia and head back to their own countries," the State Security Ministry spokesman, Mr Gela Suladze said.
He said the group, detained on December 3rd, included nine Turkish citizens, one Jordanian, a Frenchman and a "citizen of Northern Ireland".
Both Turkey and Jordan have substantial ethnic Chechen communities.
There are no legal crossing points along the frontier and access is difficult in the winter, but Moscow says Chechen rebels have crossed it to smuggle in weapons and fighters. It has also been used as an exit by small numbers of refugees.
Georgia has so far resisted Russian requests that Moscow be allowed to send its border guards to Georgia to help patrol the frontier.