Russia is prepared to launch pre-emptive strikes against "terrorist bases" in any part of the world,Russian news agencies quoted Russia's chief of staff Yuri Baluyevsky as saying yesterday.

"With regard to preventive strikes on terrorist bases,we will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world.But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes,"Baluyevsky was cited as saying.

"Military action is the last resort in the fight against terrorism,"he stressed.

Baluyevsky's statement came after last week's hostage-taking tragedy in a southern Russian school which left at least 335 people,half of them children,dead.

The school siege followed a string of attacks blamed on Chechen rebels, including the downing of two Russian passenger planes and a suicide bombing in central Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised speech to the nation on Saturday that the hostage-taking was a terrorist strike against the whole of Russia and measures would be taken to strengthen unity and security across the country,including creating "an effective anti-crisis system."

Russia's Federal Security Services (FSB) on Wednesday offered a reward of up to 300 million rubles (over 10 million US dollars)for information that will help it hunt down Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov,who were accused of being behind the school siege.