“OSCE can resume its role "in a new quality -- it can strengthen its humanitarian function, can bring new resources in order to improve the situation of the forced (Chechen) migrants and refugees," Pamfilova.

MOSCOW, January 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) may be able to resume its humanitarian, but not political, operations in Chechnya, Russian President Vladimir Putin's top human rights envoy said Friday, January 3.

Ella Pamfilova told Moscow Echo radio the OSCE could resume its operations in Chechnya "in a new role" soon, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Russia now says that the OSCE can resume its role "in a new quality -- it can strengthen its humanitarian function, can bring new resources in order to improve the situation of the forced (Chechen) migrants and refugees."

This aid could be "not only financial, but also psychological," Pamfilova added without going into further details.

Russia wants the pan-European rights and security body to give up any political role in Chechnya, where it has been working for a peaceful solution to the three-year conflict between Russian forces and independence-seeking fighters.

In a related development, the new OSEC chairman, Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said it was important that the organization was present in Chechnya with a broad mandate.

He said in a press statement the reason that Russia and the OSCE could not agree on extending the mission in war-torn republic was that Moscow wanted to "radically change the mandate of the mission".

De Hoop Scheffer wants to meet Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov soon to discuss the situation.

"If the OSCE can do its work under conditions that are acceptable to both parties, this will help to reduce instability, danger and re-establish the rule of law," the OCSE chairman said.

The six-man OSCE office in Znamenskoye in northern Chechnya was closed on Tuesday, ending all permanent international presence in the war-torn republic.

First created in 1995, the OSCE mission in Chechnya initially had an open-ended mandate and oversaw polls that saw Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov elected as president in 1997, after independence fighters defeated Moscow in a 1994-96 war.

Since the start of the current conflict, Moscow has refused to recognize the legitimacy of Maskhadov, claiming he is a "terrorist".