BESLAN, Sept 2: Heavily-armed militants freed 26 women and children but kept hundreds captive in a school for a second day on Thursday as Russian officials pledged to avoid force to end a harrowing stand off that bore the hallmarks of a strike by Chechen fighters.

Special forces personnel wearing camouflage and carrying automatic weapons carried crying toddlers and accompanied the women beyond the security perimeter around the building where they were greeted by distraught family members.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the safety of the hostages - children, their parents and teachers - was his top priority, and described the wave of terror strikes that has rocked Russia recently as an attack on the entire country.

Families and friends of the hostages kept up an agonizing round-the-clock vigil outside the school as soldiers prevented anyone from crossing the security cordon around the building in this city near Chechnya.

Officials said contact with the hostage-takers "intensified" during the day on a number of issues, among them an agreement to allow food and water to be delivered to the hostages, believed to number around 330 after the releases.

One official quoted by RIA Novosti news agency said the militants had not communicated their demands and added that Ruslan Aushev, a former president of the Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, had spoken with them in the school.

"Unfortunately, there is not yet a list of demands formulated by the terrorists," said Alan Doyev, a spokesman for the North Ossetia interior ministry, said. Mr Doyev said the 26 freed hostages were in stable condition but were suffering from psychological stress.

At one point, two loud explosions were heard in the vicinity of the school. The cause of the blasts was not clear. An empty passenger bus was driven inside the security perimeter and parked outside the school, but there was also no explanation for its presence.

The hostage-takers, reported to number at least 17 and to include two women wearing suicide belts packed with explosives, had threatened on Wednesday to blow up the school if their demands were not met. One official who spoke to Russian television said the militants had been offered safe passage to Chechnya. -AFP