President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the cancellation of the tight security regime that has been in force in Chechnya for the past decade, security officials said Thursday.

"This decision aims to create conditions to further normalize the situation in the region, to restore and develop its economic and social infrastructure," the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement, Itar-Tass reported.

The cancellation order from Medvedev took effect Thursday, news agencies cited the statement as saying.

Restrictions such as curfews, roadblocks and periodic searches were imposed in Chechnya in 1999 when federal troops were sent to the region to end its short-lived independence, won in an earlier war with Moscow.

The cancellation of the security regime comes just weeks after public statements by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in which he described the lifting of the counterterrorist operations in the republic as a done deal.

Three days after Kadyrov's rival, Chechen strongman Sulim Yamadayev, was assassinated in Dubai on March 28, the Security Council refused to formally end counterterrorist operations in the republic. The move led to speculation that some senior federal officials were wary about Kadyrov's increasing independence from Moscow.

A federal decision to end counterterrorism operations in Chechnya should mean pulling 20,000 federal troops out of the republic and disbanding military units manned by ethnic Chechens that report to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

There was no immediate confirmation Thursday, however, about what the end of the operation will mean for deployment of military and police troops in the republic.

Sporadic clashes between militants and troops persist in Chechnya, but major fighting died down several years ago. (Reuters, MT, AP)