The president of North Ossetia, the Russian region where more than 338 people were killed after terrorists seized hostages in a school, said Wednesday that the regional government would step down. 

President Alexander Dzasokhov also pledged to follow suit if he could not fulfill the demands of a crowd of furious demonstrators.

The government resignation, which Dzasokhov promised within two days, was the first sign of officials being punished for failing to prevent the attack, which has plunged North Ossetia and Russia into grief.

"We are doing this because many problems have piled up that need to be solved better," Dzasokhov was quoted as saying by the Interfax News Agency.

He added that all officials would have to answer for their actions, regardless of whether they wear epaulets -- a reference to the law enforcement organs that Russians have criticized for indifference and corruption in the face of the terrorist threat.

Dzasokhov made his pledge during an emotional hour-long exchange with more than 1,000 demonstrators who gathered in front of the regional government headquarters to press their demands: The resignation of regional government and security officials, and the formation of independent regional and national commissions to investigate the tragedy.

A small delegation of demonstrators had been permitted into the government building to hand over their demands earlier in the day, and Dzasokhov asked them for three days.

Standing on a balcony, Dzasokhov repeated his appeal for time.

"We agreed on three days. I won't flee anywhere, and you also won't leave," he said.

But the crowd was implacable, shouting "Resign! Resign!" Some demanded to know why he had not met the hostage-takers demand to enter negotiations with them.

"I was ready to go but you understand, we were dealing with bandits," Dzasokhov shouted hoarsely.

Hostage-taking pictures released

Russia's NTV television showed graphic footage shot by the terrorists who took more than a thousand hostages in a school in Beslan in the south of the country last week.

The video showed terrorists, including a masked and heavily armed man and a woman in Arab-style black headdress, as well as hundreds of hostages sitting in the gymnasium that later became a battleground.

Blood was smeared on the floor. Bombs hung from a basketball hoop and from a wire suspended across the room.

Another lay on the floor in plastic container.

One terrorist squatted, apparently working on a bomb with tape and wire clippers.

The few spaces left by the hostages, including women fanning themselves in the heat and children with their hands on their heads, were strewn with wires and what appeared to be bomb-making equipment.

One terrorist stood with his foot on a book that the commentary said contained a trip-switch to activate a bomb.

Elsewhere a rocket-propelled grenade lay unattended.

The video lasted around a minute and ended with the sound of one of the hostage-takers murmuring into his mobile phone. He was not speaking Russian.

Terrorists' bodies identified

Twelve bodies of the hostage-takers in the school have been identified, a senior Russian prosecutor said Wednesday.

"The 12 bandits who took part in attacking school No. 1 in Beslan have been identified," Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky was cited by Interfax News Agency as saying.

He said some of those identified were believed to have taken part in the overnight attacks against North Ossetian and Ingushetian facilities on June 21 that killed dozens of people, mainly Russian law enforcement staff.

Fridinsky said a current investigation shows there is a connection between the June raid and the hostage-taking event in Beslan, but the theory needs further confirmation.

Plane crash suspects arrested

Russian police arrested two suspects on Tuesday in connection with a double plane crash two weeks ago, one of a string of attacks over the last month blamed on Chechen separatists, Interfax News Agency reported.

Russian authorities initially said the nearly simultaneous downing of two airliners was a freak coincidence, but began a criminal investigation after finding traces of explosives in the wreckage of both planes. At least 89 people died.

"The arrest of the suspects was carried out with the sanction of a court. Their participation in committing the crimes is being investigated," Interfax quoted a spokesman from the Prosecutor General's Office as saying.

It gave no other details.

Although officials have declined to blame separatists for the crashes, Russian media have speculated two passengers believed to be Chechen women blew up the planes, which crashed days before an election in the war-torn province.

An Islamic group calling itself the Islambouli Brigades has also claimed responsibility in a statement on the Internet.

As well as the twin crash, Chechen rebels have been blamed for several attacks in the past month, including an offensive that killed dozens of policemen in the Chechen capital, a Moscow suicide bombing, and last week's siege of the school in Beslan.

In another development, Russia's Northern Fleet test-launched two ballistic missiles yesterday, Russian news agencies reported.

The first missile was launched at 9:38 AM Moscow time from the Yekaterinburg submarine in the Barents Sea to the Kura range on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, a Defence Ministry official said.

"The head cone of the missile hit the target on the testing range at the appointed time," the official was quoted as saying.

The second missile was fired by the Borisoglebsk nuclear submarine from the Barents Sea at 11:38 AM Moscow time.