President Yeltsin cut short a meeting in Istanbul yesterday with President Chirac of France and the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, after barely five minutes, telling them he was going home "to deal with Chechnya".
The leaders were in the Turkish capital for the summit of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Mr Yeltsin earlier had a robust exchange with President Clinton, which White House officials said had failed to narrow their differences on Moscow's military campaign in the rebel Caucasian republic.
Pledging no negotiations with people he called "bandits" and "terrorists", the Russian president rejected appeals from Mr Clinton and other leaders to seek a political settlement in the breakaway republic.
"We do not accept the advice of so-called objective critics of Russia. Those people do not understand that we simply must stop the spread of this cancer and prevent its growths from spreading across the world," Mr Yeltsin said.
Mr Yeltsin held bilateral talks with Mr Clinton after they addressed the 54-nation OSCE summit but the US leader said their discussions had failed to resolve differences over Russia's seven-week-old air and artillery assault.
"He was very vigorous and so was I," Mr Clinton said. "We have a very good personal chemistry, but it didn't stop us from our clear disagreement here."
In his public speech, Mr Clinton tempered his criticism of the military campaign with a strong expression of understanding for Mr Yeltsin's dilemma in combating what he called terrorism.
West European leaders were more outspoken, branding Russia's action disproportionate, indiscriminate and destabilising.
Mr Chirac called the consequences of the onslaught unacceptable. "The current offensive is a tragic error for the whole of the region," he said.
The Chechen question cast a shadow over the two-day summit, which was called to map out the principles and role of the OSCE in the 21st century.
Later in the day, the deadlock that had prompted Mr Yeltsin's early return home was resolved when a formula of words for mentioning Chechnya in the final declaration was hammered out.
The German foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Andreas Michaelis, said: "The way is now free for the signing of the European Security Charter." He said the foreign ministers of the US, Russia, Germany, Britain, France and Italy had agreed on references to Chechnya meeting some of the Western demands.
Mr Clinton, in his speech, urged Moscow to seek a political solution to the Chechen crisis and recognise international concerns as legitimate. "I do not believe there will ever be a time in human affairs when we will ever be able to say we simply cannot criticise this or that or the other action because it happened within the territorial borders of a single nation," he said.
He balanced his remarks, however, with an acknowledgment that Russia had a right to combat terrorism and a conciliatory tribute to Mr Yeltsin for his role in defeating a coup attempt in Russia in 1991.
"If they had put you in jail instead of electing you President I would hope that every leader of every country around this table would have stood up for you and for freedom in Russia and not said `well, that is an internal Russian affair that we cannot be a part of'," Mr Clinton said.
The OSCE, which promotes civil and minority rights, arms control and conflict resolution, groups the US, Canada and all European countries. Yugoslavia was suspended in 1992 over its role in wars in Bosnia and Croatia.