London: Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled out a public inquiry into the Beslan school carnage and said that people who call for talks with Chechen leaders have no conscience.

"Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace? Why don't you do that?" Putin said in a chat with foreign journalists and academics late last night (Sep 6, 2004).

"You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these (terrorists), so why should we talk to people who are child-killers?" the 'Guardian' newspaper quoted Putin as saying.

"No one has a moral right to tell us to talk to child-killers," he said, adding those who call for talks with terrorists have no conscience.

He said he would hold an internal inquiry into the Beslan tragedy, but not a public one. "I want to establish the chronicle of events and find out who is responsible and might be punished," he said.

If the Russian Parliament wanted to set up its own inquiry, he would not object, but he warned that it could become "a political show".

"If that happened, it would not be very productive," he said.

Russia believe that Shamil Basayev, the most extreme Chechen commander, was responsible for the hostage-taking, which ended with over 330 dead, hundreds injured and scores missing.