07 August 2004	Saturday	20 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

MOSCOW, Aug 6: Ilias Akhmadov, 'foreign minister' in the self-styled government of Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, has been granted political asylum in the United States, he said on Friday.

The announcement drew a stern protest from Moscow, which accused Washington of applying double standards in the fight against "terrorists", a term Russia uses for guerillas from Chechnya.

"I learned (on Monday) that they had granted it to me," Mr Akhmadov said. Russia, which accuses Ilias Akhmadov of terrorism and of links to an armed incursion in the Russian republic of Dagestan in 1999, has been seeking his extradition since he arrived in the United States in 2002. -AFP