STRASBOURG, Apr 4, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The Council of Europe said Wednesday it would extend a human rights mission to Russia's rebel republic of Chechnya until October 4.

The three-member mission is intended to help the Kremlin's own human rights envoy in Chechnya register and deal with human rights complaints there.

The pan-European organization's Secretary General Walter Schwimmer, after an agreement with Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to extend the mission, said it was the only international organization permanently on hand in Chechnya.

He said in a statement that since the mission arrived last June it had helped President Vladimir Putin's office there register and deal with more than 13.000 complaints about suspected human rights violations. He said it has also helped re-establish the republic's legal system.

The team is made up of a Finnish judge and a Czech and Croatian lawyer.

Russian forces poured into the secessionist republic on October 1, 1999 in a self-declared anti-terrorist operation and are still there.