CEASE-FIRE LEAVES CHECHNYA ON EDGE.

Byline: Alessandra Stanley The New York Times

The cease-fire brokered by President Boris N. Yeltsin's national security adviser went into effect at noon Friday, bringing an edgy quiet to the embattled capital of secessionist Chechnya for the first time since a devastating rebel offensive began 18 days ago.

The fate of Yeltsin's envoy, Alexander Lebed, also remained fragile. Yeltsin, who had complained on television Thursday that Lebed had failed to do anything about the crisis in Chechnya even as the security chief was hammering out conditions for a truce, declined to meet with him Friday.

After a full day of news reports on the snub, the official news agency Tass reported Friday night that Yeltsin telephoned Lebed at 10 p.m. to congratulate him on the cease-fire. Tass said Yeltsin praised it as a ``first step,'' but warned that any political settlement would have to keep the secessionist republic as ``an inseparable part of the Russian Federation.''

Yeltsin appeared to be putting some distance between himself and the as-yet-uncharted peace plans of his national security adviser. Friday, even liberal newspapers that applauded Lebed's efforts to withdraw Russian troops described the truce agreement as a victory for the rebels.

Under a front-page headline, ``They Won,'' the Moscow newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote, ``The thing is that Lebed has come to Chechnya not to restore peace but to sign the conditions of capitulation.'' The headline of the pro-Communist newspaper Zavtra put it this way: ``Lebed: A Strategic Threat to Russia.''

In Chechnya, Russian commanders and rebel leaders met again Friday in the village of Novye Atagi to discuss the separation of forces and the withdrawal of Russian troops.

The news agency Interfax reported that the rebel commander, Aslan Maskhadov, and his Russian counterpart, Gen. Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, had agreed to pull Russian and Chechen troops out of the Chechen capital, Grozny, by Thursday.

Heartened by the first real signs of disengagement since rebels began an assault on Grozny on Aug. 6 and retook the city, Lebed returned triumphantly overnight from Chechnya and asserted that he would meet the Russian president Friday.

Yeltsin's press office quickly denied that any such visit was on the president's schedule, but said Yeltsin would meet with his national security adviser some time next week, after Lebed provides a written report after his third trip to the secessionist republic.

After multiple news reports underscoring Yeltsin's ominous silence about Lebed's achievement, the president made a telephone call that was as hedged as it was laudatory.

Lebed, a former general, planned to fly to Chechnya today to resume demilitarization talks. He has said that while there he will sign a ``political document'' that could define relations between Russia and Chechnya.

He has not specified what such a future relationship would look like, but Lebed has said that he believes the rebels will accept less than full sovereignty. But he has also spoken more encouragingly of an independent Chechnya than most other government officials, and his terms for a political settlement may clash with those of Yeltsin, who is under fire from nationalists and Communists and has ruled out independence for Chechnya.