MOSCOW, Sept. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday in his first public remarks on the hostage-taking crisis in southern Russia that saving the lives of the hostages is the main goal.

    "Our main purpose in the current situation is, of course, to save the lives and protect the health of those who have found themselves taken hostage. All activity of our forces engaged in releasing the hostages will be concentrated on and aimed at resolving exclusively this problem," Putin said in meeting with King Abdallah II of Jordan in the Kremlin.

    A group of heavily armed militants seized a secondary school inthe North Ossetia republic Wednesday. The attackers are holding 354 hostages, including some 130 children, the republic's spokesman Lev Dzugayev said Thursday.

    The hostage-taking raid has left 12 people dead, and the numberof the wounded is being ascertained, North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev said.

    A Federal Security Service (FSB) official said Russia is currently ruling out using its armed forces to free the hostages, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

    "There is no alternative to dialogue. We have to expect a long and tense negotiation process," said Valery Andreyev, head of the FSB department for North Ossetian affairs.

    Putin denounced the series of terrorist attacks that took placein Russia over the past days, saying "all actions have been aimed not only against particular Russian citizens but also against Russia in general," the Interfax news agency reported.

    He said the hostage-taking event in North Ossetia is "horrible," not only because children are among those seized but also the action could blow up the already fragile religious situation in the region.

    "We will do our utmost not to allow such developments," he said.Enditem