The head of the Moscow-installed government in Chechnya resigned Monday to take up a senior position in the Russian government, making way for the appointment of a candidate less tainted by responsibility for the war in his place.


Salambek Khadzhiyev, 55, a former Soviet minister of the petrochemical industry, has for six months been the prime minister of the National Revival Government in Chechnya, where he was tasked with rebuilding the republic's shattered economy.


A likely successor has already been announced. Doku Zavgayev, former chairman of the Soviet parliament in Chechnya, will probably be named to the job, Russian Nationalities Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailov said Monday.


Khadzhiyev had announced his resignation at a Chechen government session Monday morning and recommended Zavgayev for the post, Itar-Tass reported.


"I leave the post voluntarily, feeling Doku Zavgayev may be more useful as prime minister and realizing how hard it was for the federal authorities to deal with [me]," Khadzhiyev said. "Taking all this into account it is time for me to go."


Khadzhiyev has been invited to head the State Committee for Industrial Policy in the Russian government, Mikhailov said.


Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin had approved his request to resign at a meeting in Moscow last week, Khadzhiyev told Reuters. Chernomyrdin sent a message to the government meeting thanking Khadzhiyev for his "courage and perfect performance shown in the difficult cause of rebuilding the Chechen economy and reaching peace in Chechnya."


Zavgayev's appointment would be discussed at a government meeting in Grozny on Tuesday, Itar-Tass said.


Khadzhiyev has barely been working six months in Grozny. Appointed by Moscow after Russian troops finally pushed Chechen rebels out of Grozny in a brutal and bloody military campaign that killed thousands of civilians, Khadzhiyev was fatally tainted as a leader.


A harsh critic of separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev and leading member of the anti-Dudayev opposition, Khadzhiyev nevertheless began to speak out against the atrocities committed by Russian troops, most recently the air raid on Roshni-Chu, which killed some 20 civilians and for which the Russian military command has denied responsibility.


After the July military accords were signed between Moscow and Dudayev's representatives, Khadzhiyev voiced his support for withdrawal of Russian troops and early elections, something that most believed spelled doom for his administration.


He also frequently complained that Moscow was not providing enough funds for the reconstruction of the destroyed republic and, denying accusations of corruption, blamed Moscow for not sending the money.


The news brought a mixed reaction. Itar-Tass described Khadzhiyev's departure as "strategic." Dudayev's supporters had boycotted meetings with him, refusing to recognize the legitimacy of Khadzhiyev's government, making any peaceful settlement of the conflict impossible, the agency said.


Zavgayev, 54, an experienced Soviet-era politician who has spent the war in Moscow working in the president's administration, has a better chance of working out a peaceful solution, Mikhailov said.


Zavgayev, whose parliament was abolished by Dudayev after it supported the 1991 coup attempt in Moscow, has also met recently with Chernomyrdin and announced he would stand as the Chechen parliamentary candidate for Our Home Is Russia in the December elections.


In Moscow the move was seen more as a mark of Khadzhiyev's success in lobbying for a better job than of any clear-thinking policy from the government.


"The government has no plan," said Andrei Piontkovsky of the Moscow Center for Strategic Studies, adding that changing one Chechen leader for another was an act of despair and would change little.


As for Khadzhiyev, "this is a case of running away," Piontkovsky said. "It is more comfortable in Moscow. He will be happy, he is getting out alive," he said, a reference to the two recent assassination attempts on presidential envoy Oleg Lobov and chief of Russian forces Anatoly Romanov.


The post as head of the Industrial Committee is a promotion and, while Khadzhiyev has not had any particular success in Chechnya, this new offer could be seen as a gesture of thanks from his allies in the government.