MOSCOW - Six Russian soldiers died in a shootout with Chechen rebels in a hamlet deep in the mountains of the rebel republic, a Russian official said Monday.

The fighting broke out Sunday night in Dyshe-Vedeno between a Russian patrol and a group of about 30 rebels, Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for Russian operations i Chechnya, said on NTV television.

Six rebels were also killed in the fighting, he said.

Dyshe-Vedeno is in one of the deep gorges that cut through the mountains of southern Chechnya, where small groups of rebels have camps. In almost four years of fighting, Russian forces have made little apparent progress against the rebels in the rugged mountains that make up the republic's southern third.

Rebels also launch frequent hit-and-run attacks in areas outside the mountains, including the Chechen capital city Grozny.

Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya in 1996 after insurgents fought them to a standstill in a 20-month war, leaving the republic de facto independent, but swept in again in 1999. The resumption of fighting followed incursions by Chechnya-based rebels into neighboring Dagestan and the deaths of some 300 people in apartment-building explosions that officials blamed on the separatists.