MOSCOW, Sept 29: Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the nation's religious leaders on Wednesday to join the government in its anti-terror efforts following the Beslan school hostage taking.

"Today we are going to talk about the participation of religious organisations in the consolidation of civil society in ... countering terrorism and extremism in all its forms," he told a gathering of leaders of religious confessions.

"Venting anger against terrorists on people of different religions and nationality is unacceptable, and in a multi confessional and multinational country it is absolutely destructive," Putin said.

"Your words and actions are extremely important in today's situation, when one of the criminals' goals is to direct people's wrath onto those of another faith or nationality," the Russian president said.

Putin spoke a day after a respected former regional leader in Russia's North Caucasus, the site of the Beslan tragedy, said the siege left the volatile region a tinderbox that could ignite at any moment.

"This is a very dangerous situation," Ruslan Aushev, a former president of the Caucasian republic of Ingushetia, told reporters. "I have received information that there are certain powers in North Ossetia who want and are calling for the settling of scores with the Ingush as soon as the 40 days pass," Aushev said, in reference to the traditional period of mourning observed in the region. -AFP