The newly elected pro-Russian president of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, has been officially sworn in to office. Details of the ceremony, held in the city of Gudermes, had been kept secret because of security concerns.
Moscow says Mr Kadyrov's appointment is part of its plan to stabilise the troubled Russian republic. He won a landslide victory in the presidential poll earlier this month but the vote was criticised by human rights groups.
Mr Kadyrov called for reconciliation and promised to set up a commission of inquiry into the events of 1991 which led to the bloody conflict in Chechnya.
A former rebel warlord who changed sides after Russian troops ejected the republic's separatist government in 1999, he swore allegiance to the new Chechen constitution adopted in a referendum in March this year.
