MOSCOW, March 30 (RIA Novosti) - Federal troops discovered a cache full of arms and ammunition in the Republic of Chechnya in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region, a source in the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

The troops found the arms cache during a search operation on Saturday in a forest near the village of Dyshne-Vedeno in the Vedeno district in southern Chechnya. The cache contained a Kalashnikov automatic rifle, two hand grenades and about 1,200 cartridges of various calibers, the source said.

Although the active phase of the antiterrorism campaign in the North Caucasus officially ended in 2001, periodic bombings and clashes between militants and federal troops still disrupt Chechnya and nearby regions, including Daghestan and Ingushetia.