Moscow, Nov 18, SPA -- The prime minister of Russia's conflict-tornprovince of Chechnya was in a serious but stable conditionFriday after a car crash outside Moscow, raising concernsabout a possible assassination attempt although mostofficials insisted it was a traffic accident. Sergei Abramov is the second most senior official in theMoscow-backed Chechen administration. The crash occurredlate Thursday when the car in which Abramov was travelingcollided with a truck, Abramov aide Igor Tarasov said. "His condition is stable," Tarasov told journalists inthe Chechen capital, Grozny. Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, son of the slainChechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in abomb attack in May 2004, took over Abramov's dutiestemporarily. Chechen President Alu Alkhanov ruled out the possibilityof an assassination attempt on Abramov's armor-plated car,which was taking him to a Moscow airport from where he wasto travel to Chechnya. "According to my information, there was no assassinationattempt," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Alkhanov assaying. However, Tarasov said it was too early to say whether theroad crash was a deliberate attack or an accident, Interfaxreported. "None of these theories can be ruled out," hewas quoted as saying, noting that the truck appearedsuddenly from around a corner. The state Channel One television network cited doctors assaying that the fact that Abramov's car was armor-platedhad protected him from more life-threatening injuries.--SPA1423 Local Time 1123 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/303539