Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev on Thursday released all but one of the Russian captives still being held in Grozny, while both houses of the Russian parliament condemned the Kremlin's handling of the crisis in the breakaway republic and warned against the use of force.


Dudayev handed seven prisoners over to Colonel-General Ivan Chizh at a ceremony, but said one remaining soldier was too ill to move, Reuters reported from the Chechen capital.


"I think Dudayev's move was motivated by humane feelings," the Russian general told reporters praising Dudayev's decision.


The conciliatory move came amid signs that the Kremlin still sees military intervention as a likely resolution to the Chechen problem, after a tough Security Council statement Wednesday demanded the use of "all constitutional measures" to impose order in Chechnya.


In an unexpected development, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on Thursday offered his services to mediate in the dispute, Interfax reported. Dudayev accepted the offer in a 20 minute telephone conversation.


The president's office could not be reached for comment. President Boris Yeltsin and Gorbachev have for years been sworn rivals, while Gorbachev has expressed interest in challenging Yeltsin for the presidency in 1996.


Grachev had been scheduled to fly down to the region for a second meeting with Dudayev on Thursday, but cancelled his trip for unspecified reasons, according to television reports. By contrast, Yeltsin's newly appointed special representative on the dispute, Nikolai Yegorov, and security chief Sergei Stepashin did go to Mozdok, where Russian troops are massing on the border with Chechnya.


As Chizh arrived in Grozny on Thursday, one of Grachev's deputies called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, Reuters reported.


Deputy Defense Minister Georgy Kondratyev described Dudayev as a "legitimate leader" and added:


"We can't solve the Chechen problem by military means. ... The president and the government of Russia should find a political decision to the Chechen problem."


Debates in both houses of the Russian parliament echoed this sentiment, with deputies in rare agreement that force should not be used in Chechnya, and that an investigation should be conducted to establish who authorized recent bombing raids around Grozny that left some nine civilians dead.


Both parliament sessions were closed and security was so tight in the State Duma, the parliament's lower house, that journalists were not allowed into the corridors outside the chamber.


However, deputies said after the sessions that a flood of resolutions and statements calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis had issued from all sides.


Ramazan Abdulatipov, the Dagestani deputy speaker of the Federation Council, said that "the most important thing, however hard it is, is to start a dialogue, we have to guarantee a dialogue."


The Communist faction in the Duma was one of several groups that said they held Yeltsin personally responsible for the way the situation developed. They called on both sides to "stop the escalation of tension in Chechnya and sit down at the negotiating table."


The Duma eventually adopted a milder motion drawn up by Viktor Ilyukhin, chairman of the security committee, which called on Yeltsin to "use all available methods and means of a political character to stop armed confrontation in the republic."


A Federation Council resolution condemned those authorities using force and regular Russian troops to resolve the Chechen conflict, and asked the General Prosecutor to determine who was responsible for bombing Grozny.


Deputies complained that government officials responsible for taking decisions on the crisis had not taken up invitations to address them, leaving the legislators feeling powerless.


"It has no relationship to the debate of the question because none of the speakers has any decision-taking powers," liberal deputy Yury Boldyrev said of the session in the Federation Council, parliament's upper house.


Politicians are sharply divided in their forecasts on what will happen next.


Some say the military build-up on the border is just saber-rattling, others that it has developed an unstoppable momentum and an invasion will follow.


"Expect shooting and the sending in of troops in the next few days," said Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the president of the southern republic of Kalmykia, who has in the past tried to mediate between Dudayev and Yeltsin.


Ilyumzhinov said "the mechanism has been set in motion" and that "the tough option is now in its last stage of development."


Others said there was still room for manoeuvre.


An adviser on nationalities policy in the government, who asked not to be named, said that he thought the conflict would be "drawn out" and there would be no quick military intervention. He said the crisis was so complex that it required an "unusual solution."


The liberal daily Izvestia continued its campaign against military intervention, with the front page headline across Friday's edition: "War against Chechnya is a war against Russia."