BRUSSELS, November 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The conflict in Chechnya is not just about terrorism and a political solution must be found to secure peace, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday, November 11, after an EU-Russia summit.

"The conflict in Chechnya cannot be regarded only as a terrorist problem," said Rasmussen, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, after one-day talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"A political solution is the only way to a lasting peace," Rasmussen added.

Putin, for his part, said Russia did not oppose a political process. However, he ruled out talks with Chechnya's elected President Aslan Maskhadov, whom the Russian leader branded a "murderer", following last month's theater hostage crisis in Moscow.

"We are for it (political dialogue) but we suggest that we consider terrorism and politics to be completely separate issues," the Russian leader said.

Putin, speaking after agreeing to an anti-terrorism "action plan" with the EU, said the separatist movement in Muslim-majority Chechnya "had been transformed into extremism and religious radicalism".

"Russia is not only fighting against terrorism in Chechnya but against international terrorism," he said.

"If we give just one chance to people who take hostages under any pretext, then we would have repetitions of this not only in Moscow or Washington or Bali, but in very many places all over the world," Putin said.

"If these so-called freedom fighters want to terrorize us by threatening to capture our nuclear facilities or other dangerous places, either we stand together in fighting such threats or we are in big trouble."

Earlier Monday, Putin's special advisor on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, repeated Maskhadov was no longer a "legitimate partner" for Russia in peace talks after Moscow accused him of being behind the October 23-26 theatre hostage-taking.

Rasmussen, however, reiterated the EU's call for human rights to be respected in Chechnya, where allegations of atrocities by Russian troops are rife.

"Both sides must respect human rights, and those who don't (must) be brought to trial without delay," the Danish Premier said.

"The international community must be allowed to help the innocents caught in the conflict. Humanitarian assistance must be allowed into Chechnya to reach those in need," he said.

The summit was originally to have taken place in Copenhagen, but was moved to Brussels at the last minute after Danish authorities refused to ban a Chechen conference which took place in the days after the Moscow theater siege.

Rasmussen reiterated that Denmark's constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and of assembly, and said "we regret that the Russian government put demands to us which were legally impossible to meet".

A diplomat said the debate on Chechnya between the Russian and Danish leaders had been "businesslike, not emotional".

Outside the summit, about 100 demonstrators chanted anti-Russian slogans and also took their cause to the European Parliament nearby.

In an open message to EU leaders, the organizers of the small protest said the Chechnya conflict had become as tragic and dangerous as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.