Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, in a televised address to the nation, said Monday that Russia would not change its program of economic reforms, despite a costly military campaign in Chechnya.


"In 1995, we will strive to achieve what we had planned in our program. We will not revise either the financial policy or privatization," Chernomyrdin said in the address on Ostankino television, made at the request of President Boris Yeltsin.


"I will say unequivocally: There will be no reversal," he said.


Chernomyrdin conceded that the achievement of these goals was not without difficulties. The Chechen crisis alone, he said, would cost at least 5 trillion rubles (about $1.5 billion).


The huge cost of the conflict has cast doubt over Chernomyrdin's plans for a tight cost-cutting 1995 budget.


Finance minister Vladimir Panskov said at the weekend that the costs could be covered within existing budget limits. But this was contradicted Monday by a senior parliamentary official, who said the Duma could not approve the draft budget unless the government provides amendments taking into account the cost of the war.


Interfax quoted Mikhail Zadornov, head of the budget committee in the lower chamber of parliament, as saying the details should be introduced by Friday, when the budget is to be presented for a second reading.


He said deputies and regional representatives had put forward about 60 amendments to a draft approved on a first reading last month.


The government presented new details of the draft budget to parliament last week but did not change key figures on income and expenditure, despite the mounting costs of the Chechnya crisis.


The latest draft foresees spending of 231.97 trillion rubles and income of 160.32 trillion rubles.


The projected budget deficit remains 7.7 percent of gross domestic product.


Chernomyrdin had been hoping for billions of dollars of foreign investment if Russia managed to cut inflation sharply from current levels of over 16 percent a month.This scenario is unlikely while Russia has a costly war on its hands.


Nevertheless, Chernomyrdin said in his address, the 1995 reform strategy would not change. "This year must be the year of stabilization of the Russian economy", he said.


In comments shown on Russian television earlier, Chernomyrdin also called for immediate peace talks and a cease-fire.


Chernomyrdin, a moderate, has kept a low profile for much of the conflict although he is a member of the policy-making Security Council which has given hard-line orders on Chechnya until now. Troops were sent there Dec. 11.


But last week he and other moderates started playing a more visible role in handling the conflict, in which Russian troops and Chechen separatist fighters have now become bogged down in fighting inside the regional capital Grozny.