A senior Russian official has told the BBC that Islamic terrorists with links to Al Qaeda are trying to "tear the whole of the North Caucasus away from Russia".

The President of Dagestan, Russia's most restless republic, said that insurgents wanted to turn the whole region into an Islamic state.

In recent months Dagestan - which neighbours Chechnya - has become the epicentre of violence in the Caucasus with almost daily shootings, bombings and kidnapping.

Steve Rosenberg reports.