BESLAN, Sept 6: Grief-stricken mothers and fathers trudged through mud and rain on Monday to bury children slaughtered in a Russian school siege as criticism mounted over the way the Kremlin handled the crisis.

At least 335 people, half of them children, were killed during a bloodbath that ended last week's 53-hour siege. There has been anger at the chaotic storming of the school by Russian troops and at President Vladimir Putin's assertion that Russia was the victim of "international terror" rather than home grown Chechens.

"The official claim that international terrorism is behind the Beslan tragedy is a trick designed to divert responsibility away from the Kremlin," said liberal politician Boris Nemtsov.

"We are absolutely defenceless in the air, in the metro, in our own capital and outside it," Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent in the lower house, wrote in Nezavisimaya daily. "He won the contract (as president) to restore order in the country, to ensure security for people. We see today that the contract has been violated." -Reuters