Russia has said that Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev directed the hostage-taking raid on a school in southern Russia last week which left nearly 340 dead.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remarks on Friday in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV channel. But the minister did not provide clear evidence for his statement.

Russian authorities have said that Basayev was behind the school hostage-taking in the North Ossetia republic and many other violent rebel attacks. Lavrov's remark was the latest definite accusation against the notorious rebel leader.

The minister also confirmed earlier official information that there were Arabs among the hostage-takers.

A group of armed militants seized a secondary school on September 1, holding some 1,200 people hostages. The crisis ended on the third day as Russian troops launched an unplanned raid on the building after the raiders began to shoot fleeing hostages. Over 330 hostages, half of them children, were killed and over 700 others injured. Thirty-one hostage-takers were also killed.