Doha has lodged a strong protest with Russia over the arrest of two of its citizens in Moscow. The arrests had come a day after the Qatari  government charged two Russians with the murder of a former rebel Chechen leader living in the tiny Gulf state.

The two are members of Qatar's national wrestling team

"They were detained on arrival in Moscow airport from Belarus on their way to Serbia to participate in a qualifying tournament for the 2004 Olympic Games," state news agency QNA said.

The duo was picked up on Thursday, the day Qatar had charged two Russians with involvement in a car blast that killed Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in the Gulf state on February 13. Yandarbiyev briefly headed Russia's war-torn separatist republic of Chechnya in the mid-1990s and had been living in Qatar 'temporarily' for nearly three years with his family despite a Russian request for his extradition.

Russia admits that the two arrested Russian are spies but its foreign intelligence service, SVR, has denied any involvement in the killing of Yandarbiyev, who died when his car blew up.

The two men were involved in fighting international terrorism and had nothing to do with the killing of the Chechen, SVR said. Moscow has demanded their release and accused Qatar of assisting terrorism by granting refuge to Yandarbiyev who was added to the United Nations list of people with suspected links to Al Qaeda in 2003 at Russia's request.

Qatar, where US forces were headquartered during last year's Iraq war, has dismissed the accusation.