Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin flew back to Moscow on Wednesday from a controversial seaside vacation, dismissing reports of his resignation and alleged differences with President Boris Yeltsin and pledging that his government would stay on course.


Looking relaxed and confident at a press conference at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, Chernomyrdin was contemptuous about reports carried on radio and television Tuesday evening claiming that he had decided to step down for health reasons.


"Every time the president leaves town, there are rumors about him, and every time I leave town there are rumors about me," he said. "I did not get this job by asking for it and I will not finish it by asking to leave."


The prime minister's decision to remain at the Black Sea resort of Sochi while his government came under fire in the wake of last week's currency crisis raised many eyebrows in Moscow.


Chernomyrdin only came back from Sochi for one day last week after learning that Yeltsin had fired Acting Finance Minister Sergei Dubinin and Central Bank chief Viktor Gerashchenko, blaming them for the ruble's crash against the dollar last Tuesday.


But at his Vnukovo press conference, the prime minister stressed that he had only been 1 1/2 hours away from Moscow, and that while in Sochi he worked intensively on the 1995 budget and the mid-term government economic program of action for 1995 to 1997.


Asked about Gerashchenko he said: "I don't think there is anything more to discuss. I think Gerashchenko himself believes his resignation is final."


He also said he had no differences with Yeltsin over the resignation of Gerashchenko who had enjoyed the prime minister's support on previous occasions when he incurred Yeltsin's wrath.


Chernomyrdin's spokesmen were adamant before his return to Moscow that there was nothing unusual about his vacation, which they said had been planned months in advance.


But the fact that the prime minister had originally been scheduled to meet Queen Elizabeth II on her arrival in Moscow on Monday, and was substituted at the last minute by his deputy Oleg Soskovets, indicated that this was not the case.


Chernomyrdin made light of the gaffe Wednesday saying: "I don't think the queen of England will be offended by my absence from Moscow. The situation was such that I had to work."


He was also dismissive about the parliamentary vote of confidence in his cabinet, scheduled for next Thursday. "I'm not even thinking about it now. All I am thinking about is the budget."


He said he would be submitting his own candidates for the posts of finance minister and Central Bank chairman, but declined to name them, saying only that there would be no radical changes in the government.


Chernomyrdin's absence from Moscow had caused widespread speculation about his position, even before he was reported to have resigned. In parliament Wednesday, legislators appeared bewildered by his behavior.


"In this country, everyone is used to impunity," former Finance Minister Boris Fyodorov told a press conference this week. "Somebody is being replaced in the government, discussions about whom to appoint in their place are going on, and where is Chernomyrdin?"


At the opposite end of the political spectrum, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov also said he was puzzled by the prime minister's absence from Moscow during the crisis.


"I don't understand why he went back to Sochi instead of meeting with the Duma leadership and with Gerashchenko," Zyuganov said.


Fyodorov, an outspoken critic of the government, said Chernomyrdin had returned last week to stand up for the central banker, but that something had gone wrong at the last moment, implying that the prime minister had been at odds with Yeltsin's position.


But the president's press secretary Vyacheslav Kostikov said Wednesday Yeltsin and Chernomyrdin were on the best possible terms and that the prime minister had not tried to defend Gerashchenko.


Gerashchenko tendered his resignation to Yeltsin during a Kremlin meeting and Yeltsin immediately dismissed him by decree, despite a clause in the constitution that makes appointing and dismissing the country's top banker the exclusive responsibility of the State Duma.


Anti-Yeltsin deputies in the Duma on Wednesday said they were outraged by what they saw as Yeltsin's high-handedness.


"This is the first serious violation of the new constitution by the president," deputy Nikolai Lysenko said. "It sets a precedent of infringing on the Duma's powers."


Other conservative legislators, including Zyuganov and Agrarian Party head Mikhail Lapshin called Yeltsin's move a violation of the constitution. But Yeltsin' supporters say he had the right to fire Gerashchenko because he appointed him before the current constitution was adopted.