05 September 2004	Sunday	19 Rajab 1425

MOSCOW, Sept 4: President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the school hostage crisis in southern Russia showed the country was failing to respond adequately to the threat of international terrorism.

Addressing Russians on national television for the first time since the siege ended with at least 322 dead, a solemn Putin vowed that Russia would never give in to terror.

"We did not understand the complexity and the danger of the process which was emerging in our country and in the entire world," said Mr Putin, who had earlier in the day paid a lightning visit to the North Ossetian town of Beslan, where 1,000 children and adults were taken hostage on Wednesday.

"We did not know how to react in the appropriate fashion. We have showed weakness in the face of danger and the weak get beaten up," he said in the 10-minute address, shown on both state television channels.

Analysts believe the three-day hostage crisis and a succession of deadly attacks in past weeks have confronted Mr Putin with the toughest challenge yet to his presidency, built on a promise to fight Chechen guerillas without mercy.

The president also conceded that Russia could have acted "more professionally" in protecting its borders. "Here we could have been more effective, if we had acted more comprehensively and professionally," he said.

Mr Putin said he saw the fight against extremists as a fight to preserve the territorial integrity of Russia itself, and pledged the country would toughen up security - something that had been lacking so far.

"The terrorists think that they are stronger than us, that they can scare us with their cruelty, that they will be able to paralyse our will. And it would seem we are faced with a choice - either to give in or to fight them off or agree with their claims."

The heavily-armed hostage-takers had demanded independence for Chechnya.

"As president, as the head of state, as a man who has given his vow to defend his country, its territorial integrity, and simply as a citizen of Russia, I am convinced that we simply have no choice," Mr Putin said.

"We must create a much more efficient security system requiring actions from our security forces that rise to the challenges they face.

"We have not paid due attention to defence and security issues. We will, in the near future, take steps aimed at strengthening the unity of the country."

Mr Putin called for creation of of a new crisis-management system for Russia and said he wanted to draw up a new blueprint for coordinating "force and other means" for bringing security in the northern Caucasus under control. -AFP