MOSCOW -- Kremlin officials geared up yesterday for a critical Russian Security Council meeting that could decide the fate of Chechnya, the rebellious Muslim republic reeling under Russia's continued bombing and pitched battles.
Meantime, government reports here asserted that a major clash between Russian troops and Chechen militants yesterday morning in the town of Argun had left 1,000 Chechens dead.
But Chechen sources denied the casualty figure, and Russian information on the Chechnya conflict has been unreliable.
Bombing of the Chechen capital, Grozny, appeared to have quieted somewhat yesterday.
But there was fear that the lull could be simply the calm before the expected ground assault by Russian troops who have ringed the city to force Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev into submission.
Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin and other Cabinet members met last night to prepare options to present at today's s security council meeting, scheduled to bechaired by President Boris N. Yeltsin.
Mr. Yeltsin, who checked into the hospital for a nose operation the day before thousands of Russian troops launched the offensive on Chechnya on Dec. 11, had not made a public appearance since then.
But he had promised to speak to the nation and to propose a peace initiative early this week.
On the eve of the meeting, advisers and analysts predicted that the security council would become the setting for a decisive battle between hawks and doves in Mr. Yeltsin's entourage.
"The options are the military way or political negotiations," Emil Pain, a presidential adviser, told last night's news program "Itogi." "And everybody understands that what's done must be done as quickly as possible."
Mr. Pain said he had been told that Mr. Dudayev was willing to resume peace talks with Moscow, but it was not clear on what terms.
Sergei Kovalyov, head of the State Duma's human rights committee, urged the immediate resumption of talks. "The time has come for a cardinal decision," he said in a message to Mr. Yeltsin carried by the Itar-Tass news agency. "There is still a choice. . . . The possibility of this choice will not come again."
Other sources said the Russian military would propose today that special forces be given the go-ahead to storm Grozny, usually a city of 400,000 but now largely deserted except for Chechen fighters and residents with nowhere to flee.
Vice Premier Nikolai Yegorov warned Saturday that if Mr. Dudayev did not give in soon, "An armed operation will be launched in the coming days to place Grozny under the control of the federal authority."
But Mr. Pain said that, "Grozny cannot be taken without great bloodshed. And what does great bloodshed mean for the country? It means a sharp change in the people's attitude toward the conflict, and in international public opinion as well, and it could lead to a conflict within the government that would lead to general political chaos."
Disapproval of the incursion into Chechnya has spread across the political spectrum and cost Mr. Yeltsin many of his close allies, although it has brought no mass protests. Reactions from Western governments remained muted.